Department dismisses appeals against EA amendments

Date: 21 April 2019 By: 

MC Mining announced on Wednesday that they were pleased with the decision to dismiss the appeals against amendments to their Makhado Project’s environmental authorisation (EA).

Project owner Baobab Mining and Exploration, a subsidiary of MC Mining, applied to both the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) during January 2018 for an amendment to Makhado’s EA. The amendment allows for the transportation of coal to Musina by road rather than rail and was approved by the DMR and LEDET during September 2018. “Following this, the same narrow interest group that had previously and unsuccessfully appealed the original Makhado EA, appealed the DMR and LEDET decisions, resulting in the suspension of the EA amendment authorisations. The company is pleased to announce that both appeals have been dismissed. This results in the EA amendment being effective and reaffirms the Makhado Project’s permitted status,” said MC Mining in a media statement. Whether they were referring to the Vhembe Mineral Resources Forum, who contested them many times in the past, as the “narrow interest group” is unclear.

“This dismissal of the appeals by the South African government reinforces the robustness of Baobab’s permitting processes despite continued attempts by narrow interest groups to halt the project’s progress. The recently announced phased development of Makhado includes the utilisation of the existing, modified Vele processing plant as well as road and rail infrastructure previously tested,” said MC Mining’s CEO Mr David Brown.

MC Mining anticipates that funding-dependent construction of Makhado Phase 1 should commence in the third quarter of this year, adding that this would contribute significantly to the socio-economic development in the area and generating positive returns for shareholders in the near term.

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