Heritage Cases

Subiflex (Pty) Ltd (Reg. No: 2010/019233/07) applied for a mining right for coal, pseudocoal and torbanite/oilshale in terms of section 22 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development (MPRDA) Act 28 of 2002 (as amended) on 30 July 2015 in respect of the Remaining Extent of the farm The Duel 186 MT and for Environmental Authorisation in terms of section 24 of the National Environmental Management (NEMA) Act 107 of 1998 (as amended) and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations of 2014 (as amended in 2017). The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) refused the said application on 19 January 2017, due to the fact that the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) did not support the granting of the Environmental Authorisation for reasons which the DMR felt was not addressed sufficiently by the applicant. Subiflex submitted an appeal to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) on 8 February 2017, which appeal was dismissed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs on 23 February 2018. Following consultation with authorities, Subiflex was advised to re-submit its applications for a Mining Right and Environmental Authorisation. It is Subiflex’s intent to utilise knowledge gained and comments received from the previous process to ensure due consideration is given to all aspects of the project and process, whilst reviewing certain biophysical, social and cultural aspects to update the 2015 specialist findings. The Duel Coal Project will be a combination of open pit and underground mining and has a potential Life-of-Mine (LOM) of 24 years. The envisaged mining method for the open pit area is a conventional drill and blast operation with truck and shovel, load and haul. Underground mining operations will commence from Year 10 onwards for a period of 5 years. Access will be from selected positions in the open pit and the coal will be mined through the long-wall methodology. After underground activities have been completed, the access to the underground areas will be closed followed by the final rehabilitation of the open pit. The proposed infrastructure to be developed includes: • Coal Handling Processing Plant; • Overburden Waste Dump; • Temporary Discard Dump; • Haul roads; • Pollution Control Dams; • Raw water storage facility and distribution systems; • Access road; and • Auxiliary infrastructure includes a workshop and store, office and change house, electrical power supply and security fencing. The washed coal will be transported via road to a nearby siding. The final discard material from the plant will be disposed of in the mined-out open pit. In the event that the pit is unavailable due to existing mining activities, the discard material will be placed on an interim surface discard dump, from where it will be reclaimed and dumped into the mined-out open pit towards the end of the mine life as part of the rehabilitation of the mining site.