Heritage Cases

Project Description Eko Environmental will submit applications to obtain a waste management license ("WML") and a water use license ("WUL") in terms of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act (Act No. 59 of 2008) ("NEMWA") and National Water Act 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998) ("NWA") respectively to rehabilitate the Pit by infilling it with tailings. The application for a WML will include a Scoping and Environmental Impact Assessment process ("S&EIR") under the National Environmental Management Act (Act No. 107 of 1998) ("NEMA"). The Pit was created in the 1870s when the Jagersfontein Farm was proclaimed a public digging. It is the biggest hand-excavated hole in the world and is a heritage resource under section 3 of the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999 ("NHRA") due to its historical value. The Pit has however not been given any formal protection by the South African Heritage Resources Agency or Free State Heritage Resources Authority under the NHRA. SAHRA and the Free State Heritage Resource Authority will be notified of the proposed project. The Pit is unstable, is break-backing and poses vibration risks. Tourism is therefore not a viable option at the Pit. JD has appointed a geotechnical and structural engineering specialist who has undertaken extensive assessments and confirmed that the use of tailings to rehabilitate the Pit is the only viable way to ensure the Pit's stability and eliminate risks to surrounding residents in the long term. JD's Operations consist of reprocessing eleven tailings dumps, where the coarse tailings from historic diamond mining operations were discarded, at an existing diamond recovery Processing Plant (the "Plant") in Jagersfontein. Currently JD's Operation utilizes the existing Fine Tailings Storage Facilities ("FTSF") for storage of the fine tailings from the Plant. Coarse tailings are returned to the existing footprints from where the tailings were removed and were also used to stabilise the FTSF's walls. However, it was determined that coarse and fine tailings can be utilised to rehabilitate the Pit by filling the tailings into it. This will ensure the stability of the Pit. It will also remove all current tailings from the surface of the properties adjacent to Portion 15 owned by JD ("JD Properties"), enabling more effective rehabilitation and creating an area with a higher potential for agriculture. Rehabilitating the Pit will also likely cause less groundwater impacts than are currently caused by placing the tailings on the surface of the JD Properties. JD's Operation will produce approximately 23 million tons of fine tailings and 27.2 million tons of coarse tailings, which will be used to rehabilitate the Pit over the lifetime of the operation. The Pit has the capacity to contain approximately 33 677 382 m3 of tailings from JD's Operation. Locality The activity will occur on Portion 15 of the Farm Jagersfontein 14, Fauresmith RD, Free State. Refer to the attached locality map. The applicant for this project is JD who is the landowner of Portion 15. Alternatives The only other feasible alternative for the project is keeping the entire Pit fenced in and preventing people and animals from entering the area surrounding the Pit, as this area in unsafe.