If you tour by Google Maps that part of South Africa where I grew up (mainly the East Rand around Brakpan and Springs) you will not see the many slimes dams that I knew and played around. They are long since gone—reworked for gold and uranium and consolidated into a mega-slimes dam that I recall is called ERGO.
This is good as the dust that blew onto our school desks was no doubt higher in uranium than would now be considered reasonable or safe. This is bad as those great places for kids to ride bike are gone.
Now a new and similar project is planned: take back a number of old slimes dams, rework them to get the gold and uranium left behind by those old process engineers, and consolidate the cleaner tailings into one major, modern slimes dam.
Yet this project is being fought by South African environmentalists, who in my opinion, are simply crazy. Here is a link to the full story. In part it reads:
It’s a strange irony that one of the country’s foremost environmental activists – Mariette Liefferink and her Federation for a Sustainable Environment – should make every effort to sabotage one of the mining industry’s most important cleanup projects, and manage to do so. If truth be told, the mining industry has a history extending over more than a hundred years of breaking up, excavating and leaching some of the most poisonous substances known to man, and then abandoning such operations. In South Africa miners have built up a reputation of being the economic version of scorched-earth terrorists. It is therefore entirely understandable that civil organisations and government authorities put every dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’ of an environmental impact study and rehabilitation plan for a mining project under the microscope before approving it. The Mine Waste Solutions (MWS) and First Uranium Kareerand mega-tailings dam is probably one of the most sensitive mining projects ever tackled in South Africa’s gold fields. The cleaning of 15 enormous tailings dams around Stilfontein and Khuma – the township which was established, in the apartheid tradition, 3km to the south-east of the town, away from the N12 freeway – is probably the community’s last chance to transform a typical mining town into a productive rural community.
No doubt Mariette Liefferink would justify her opposition. Not sure how. But probably on the basis of protecting the new site. But in reality, on the basis of a comparison of current harm, probably continuing harm if nothing is done, and the harm of the new dam, I cannot see how her arguments can prevail.
I am encouraged to see this description of the new slimes dam and the innovative thinking by Fraser Alexander engineer Beric Robinson (who I hope comes to Vancouver for the Tailings and Mine Waste Conference, November 7 on.)
The techniques being applied to the design and building of the enormous tailings dam, which will hold 450 tonnes of processed mine tailings in the first stage of its lifetime, have never been used elsewhere. The walls of tailings dams are always built at a 45-degree slope, but the Kareerand Dam’s slope is 15 degrees. This is to reduce the wind resistance on the wall. The final wall is also being constructed with scalloped inlets to retain the rainwater that runs down and thus prevent erosion, said Fraser Alexander engineer Beric Robinson, who designed the tailings dam. He is regarded as a worldwide expert in tailing dam design.
“We try to imitate nature, but managing to do so is not a daydream. The techniques being used are based on comprehensive analysis and years of observing tailings dams,” said Robinson. “The challenge to the question as to whether the dam will improve current conditions is not scientific. Rather, it is an economic challenge to construct the tailings dam and operate it economically.”
In building the dam, surface soil from the 2km terrain was collected in an outside weir right around the dam. When the dam wall has finally set, this will be pushed up and positioned against the final wall. Unlike other tailings dams, Kareerand’s drainage system has a discharge point right in the middle of the dam, which feeds water to smaller supplementary dams beside the big dam, for recirculation from those points. The water will then be used in a sophisticated water irrigation system. This system, which consists of different batteries of sprinklers, will be controlled by a wind-monitoring system so that dust is spread across the tailings dam when the wind speed reaches particular levels.
SOunds like they are thinking right, planning right, and trying hard to do the right thing. Sad to see crazy ladies shrill at them. If my assessment of this situation is incorrect, please let me know.
So Jack is so concerned about the tailings dams in South Africa that he has cancelled his invitation to talk at the conference to be held in Johannesburg on the 6th March 2012 as he is scared of flying, in so doing he has let so many people down, from collegues to family. If he cares so much as he claims to above why is he not prepared to face the South African Engineers and state his position? He proclaims to be an expert but he has never attended the Mining indaba held each year in South Africa. He left this country and totally hates it, but keeps proclaiming to be an expert on South Africa. I would not believe any of his ramblings on South Africas mining industry as he has no personal connection to us at all.
As always , attack the man and not the issues at stake. What we need are solid plans to clear the backlog environmental legacy of two hundred years of mining abuse. Similarly , acid mine drainage solutions are being stalled with enormous risks to environment. What does Rusty really think about the proposal?
YOU ALL SEEM TO MISS THE POINT
I
TS ABOUT WATER, WHICH WE SOUTH AFRICANS HAVE`NT GOT, AND CLEAN AIR
IN ADDITION ITS SECONDARY PURPOSE IS TO MOVE SUCH TSF`s from DOLOMITE (KRAST) TO GRANITE BASE AND THE INFLUENSCE OF AMD ON GRANITE HAS NOT BEEN HIGHLIGHTED YET ALTHOUGH SEVERAL STUDIES EXIST IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY
THE COST OF 150 YEARS OF POLLUTION REHABILTALION IS MOOTED AS EXCEEDING THAT OF THE TOTAL VALUE OF A PRETTY USELESS METAL LIKE GOLD, THAT HAS BEEN EXTRACTED.
ADD TO THIS THE POLLUTION OF PERIPHERAL MINING AND iNDUSTRY TO MAKE ALL THIS POSSIBLE
THE MINES AND THE INVESTORS ARE ESTABLISHED OLYMPIC RUNNERS, WHOSE ENGINEERS ARE LARGELY SILENCED BY THE ACCOUNTING FRATERNITY
JACK, YOU SEEM TO HAVE POLITICAL ISSUES, SUGGEST YOU HAVE A LOOK A THE WATER STORAGE DAM SAFETY REPORTS (WHICH WE BUILD IN OUR DAYS) FROM DWA AND KEEP IN MIND THAT SLIMES DAMS ARE IN FACT DAMS THAT MUST COMPLY AND BE REGISTERED WITH DAM SAFETY
SIMPLY PUT, THE MINES ATTEND TO THE REHABILTATION AS PART OF THE MINING PROGRAMME, IN ORDER FOR CLOSURE REHABILITATION TO BE IS AS CLOSE AS DAMMIT IS TO SWEARING
AS FOR SOME OF BERICKS REMARKS AT EIA MEETINGS, ITS BEST NOT REPEATED, NEITHER IS YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT MARRIETTE APPRECIATED.
WE HOME GROWN PERMANENT SOUTH AFRICANS,FIGHT OUR OWN BATTLES
WHY DO YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS?
It makes you look aggressive and uneducated. Stop.
The problem in South Africa is the South Africans.
I’ve known and worked with Mariette for several years now and I can assure you Mariette is not anti-mining and neither am I. We’re all smart enough to know that mining is what built this country and is what will continue to build our country and economy. The problem we have is unsustainable mining practices which has been the status quo for 120 years. We are also opposed to new mining proposals in very sensitive areas high in biodiversity.
Mariette and the FSE have done amazing work in exposing what the mining industry and government (past and current) have known for years but have kept very well concealed. It was Mariette’s refusal to accept the blatant poisoning of communities and her refusal to accept the lies being concealed that led to a lot of serious problems being exposed.
Sadly in 5 years since these matters started getting proper media attention, not a hell of a lot has been done to even begin cleaning up and the acid mine waters still flow.
Even when the mining industry attempt to start cleanup operations they often exacerbate the problem even more often sending clouds of radioactive dust over the affected communities, raising toxicity and radioactivity levels even more.
The fact remains, we have some serious problems that are not going away any time soon and were it not for Mariette and the FSE this would all still be nicely covered up under a big dark rug.
Hello sir:
This is Shahzad from Pakistan. I just had a quick look on your blog and i found it very interesting and very informative and it will be a pleasure to to see my mining poem (that makes every mining engineer feel proud of his field) on your wonderful website. I’m sorry i could not find any appropriate place to forward my words to you neither i found your personal email address in a glance. Title of my poem is “A Miner’s Poem” and “Miner’s Memorial”. Will share my poems on your reply. and i would appreciate if i can get your personal email address.
will wait to listen from you sir
Thanks and Regards,
Shahzad Manzoor Channa
channa.shahzad@gmail.com