Heritage Cases

MC Mining is operating Vele Colliery approximately 50 kilometers northwest of Musina Central Business District (CBD), 32 kilometers east of Mapungubwe Hill, and about 10 kilometres from the eastern boundary of the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site. The company bought a series of farms where it mines coal, mixing this business venture with heritage and nature conservation. Given the sensitivity of the wider Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, the company established the Environmental Management Committee (EMC) whose principal objective is to monitor compliance with heritage and water use legislation and ancillary regulations. The South African Heritage Resources The agency is a member of the EMC and performs periodic monitoring of the heritage resources and makes recommendations to enhance the protection of heritage resources. During the 2021 monitoring visit by SAHRA, it was recommended that Site 37 be monitored every six months and that it be mitigated through a section 35 permit application given the precarity posed by development expansion. The site was affected by a pre-existing gravel road and continues to be eroded further degrading its information value.Continuous monitoring by MC Mining indicated that Site 37 requires mitigation to preserve it by the record. The site is located within the approved East Pit precinct of Vele Coal Mine. This proposal is for a permit to mitigate Site 37 to generate high-level information to enhance our understanding of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. This will ensure that the site is not impacted should the current footprint of the East Pit be extended.