Heritage Cases

PPM is a platinum and chrome mining and mineral processing operation located to the north-west of the Pilanesberg National Park in the North West Province. In broad terms the existing PPM operation comprises an open pit mine (West Pit and East Pit), temporary and permanent waste rock dumps (WRDs), a mineral processing plant complex, a tailings storage facility (TSF) and support services and infrastructure. PPM proposes to expand the existing PPM mineral processing operations, upgrade the existing sewage treatment plant and relocate the waste storage and handling facility from inside the plant to an area outside the plant. Furthermore, a number of community based initiatives have been established at the mine. These have been included in the report at the request of the DMR. The proposed project includes activities listed under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations 2014 (as amended), promulgated in terms of Chapter 5 of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (No. 107 of 1998) (NEMA). Such listed activities are prohibited from commencing until authorisation is obtained from the competent authority, which in this case is the North West Department of Rural, Environmental and Agricultural Development (DREAD). The activities that are triggered require a full Scoping and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process to inform the DREAD’s decision on the application for environmental authorisation. In addition, the proposed project also requires authorisation from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) under Section 102 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 28 of 2002 (MPRDA) as the project will take place on a mine and requires an amendment to the mine’s Environmental Management Programme (EMP). PPM is one of three mining operations in the North West Province that fall under the Sedibelo Platinum Mines Limited (SPML) group of companies. These three operations lie adjacent to each other, north of the Pilanesberg National Park. While PPM is an operational mine, the other two operations, namely Sedibelo Platinum Mine and Magazynskraal Platinum Mine (with the potential to incorporate the Kruidfontein ore resource) have not yet been constructed. PPM proposes to expand the existing PPM mineral processing operations to incorporate a hydrometallurgical plant for the extraction of platinum group metals (PGMs) and base metals and a UG2 milling and flotation circuit to process ore from the Sedibelo Platinum Mine (SPM) operation. In addition, PPM is planning to upgrade the existing sewage treatment plant and relocate the waste storage and handling facility from inside the plant to an area outside the plant. The previously proposed modular tailings re-treatment plant for the extraction of PGMs (which would require the re-processing of the existing PPM TSF) and the training centre have been excluded from the scope of the EIA. Project-related infrastructure will be developed within PPM’s existing operational footprint. Existing services and infrastructure on site would be used to support the project. The current mining operation involves accessing the two commonly exploited 'PGE-bearing' reef horizons, the Merensky (silicate) and UG2, in a single open-cast mining operation. PPM will continue to mine in this manner as the plant expansion project proposes changes only to the metallurgical processes and not the open-cast mining plan or method. Furthermore, a number of community based initiatives have been established at the mine. These have been included in this report at the request of the DMR. These include an aggregate crusher and brick making project, a nursery, a vegetable garden and composting area and a car wash. Community based projects have mainly been established within PPM’s plant complex, except the vegetable garden and nursery which has been established immediately adjacent to the TSF’s return water dam.