Heritage Cases

The Rietvlei Mine proposes to mine two seams from the Ecca Group of the Karoo Supergroup, which correlates to the seams in the Witbank Coalfield. The sequence includes the 2A (2 Upper and 2 Lower) and 1 (1 Lower) Coal Seams, with the 1-Seam and the 2-Seam being the most prominent coal seams in the area. It is proposed that the Rietvlei Mine will be mined using opencast methods including conventional truck and shovel techniques. The coal will be crushed to a specific size before being introduced to a dense media separation (DMS) plant which uses dense medium cyclone and spirals processing to produce product coal. Discard will be directed through a filter-press in order to retain as much process water as possible before the dry-discard is disposed of in-pit and backfilled with overburden. The product will be stockpiled onsite prior to being transported offsite for use at Eskom Power Stations. It is anticipated that the Rietvlei Mine will have a lifespan of approximately 20 years. Infrastructure to be installed and constructed as part of the proposed Rietvlei Mine include power supply, water supply, road infrastructure (including the Pan Siding Road diversion), offices and associated buildings (including a clinic), warehouses and workshops (including vehicle washbay), pollution control dams and potentially stormwater dams, sewage treatment plan and water treatment plant as well as a waste storage and sorting yard. Five graveyards were found in the proposed mining area. The graveyards occur in open spaces in the Eucalyptus forests. These areas are devoid of any building rubble or other ecological indicators which suggest that small groups of people have lived in the plantations in the past. The graveyards and graves identified on site can be considered to be of high significance and are protected by various pieces of legislation including Section 36 of the National Heritage Resources Act (No 25 of 1999). It is clear that all the graveyards will be affected during the construction phase when the open cast mining activities commences except GY01 and GY03 which will be affected when the construction activities for the mine’s surface infrastructure commences. The significance of any possible impact on the graveyards is High. However, the impacts on the graveyards are partially reversible and will only result in a partially irreplaceable loss of the graveyards.