Unfinished business: Coal miners in South Africa walk away from clean up.

Abandoned remnants of the Leliefontein section of Golfview
mine’s pockmark Johan Vos’ farm in Mpumalanga. (Photo: Mark Olalde)

Documents obtained by Climate Home reveal a growing crisis as big miners and government shift liability to small companies who cannot afford coal mine clean up.

By Mark Olalde in Ermelo

Just outside the town of Ermelo in Mpumalanga – South Africa’s most important coal mining province – Johan Vos’ farm is littered with derelict and working mines.

At one abandoned site, mining infrastructure sits partially submerged and rusting in a large pool formed among exposed mine waste. Smoke pours from a nearby hill as a fire rages out-of-control in the tunnels below.

The wreckage belongs to Golfview Mining (Pty) Ltd, part of Anker Coal and Mineral Holdings South Africa (Pty) Ltd, which in turn is part of the Anker group based in the Netherlands. But rather than finish cleaning up Vos’ land, Golfview is looking to sell.

Sights like this are increasingly common in South Africa. As the global market for coal slowly declines, slimmer margins are forcing international mining companies, including majors BHP Billiton and Anglo American, to shed their coal assets.

Documents obtained from the country’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) by Climate Home reveal a small minority of mining companies hold the majority of the country’s funds for rehabilitation. However, these big miners rarely apply for, and are almost never granted, closure certificates, the documents needed to legally close a mine and pass remaining liability to the government. Instead, junior miners, such as Golfview, are left with the remnants of mines and insufficient funds to properly clean up when the resource is exhausted.

Full story at Climate Changes News.