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'A recipe for disaster'
13/05/2008 08:51 - (SA)
Elise Tempelhoff, Beeld
Pretoria - The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and the Sterkfontein Caves are seriously threatened by centuries of mining.
Mining activities on the West Rand and the Far West Rand also threaten the N14, the highway that runs from the North West to Pretoria, north of Krugersdorp.
According to a report published by the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE), over the past 120 years gold mining created a vacuum of almost 45 million cubic metres under the West Rand.
This disturbed the geology of the western part of the Witwatersrand.
Apart from the instability caused by the vacuum, acidic mine water ate away at the dolomites and increased the chances of sinkholes, especially in the area north of Krugersdorp.
The report was compiled by the African Environmental Development for Harmony Gold (by order of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry) to determine what the effects of acid mine water were on the environment.
According to the report, homes, businesses and large sections of the N14 north of Krugerdorp could disappear into sinkholes in the foreseeable future.
The report reads: "The acid mine water in the Western Basin Mine Void caused by mining over the past 120 years could not have emerged (in 2002) in a worse place.
Seeping into the Sterkfontein Caves
"The acid mine water began rising up in a place where water naturally collected.
"This in itself is a recipe for disaster, especially concerning the formation of sinkholes, but even worse: The whole area north of the old borehole where the acid mine water (still) bubbled up is a declared World Heritage Site.
"The Cradle of Humankind is supposed to preserve important fossils and caves for future generations.
"Just as bad: a few metres from the place where the water bubbles up, there is a nature reserve and the spring (Tweelopiespruit) that runs through it is the only source of water for the game here.
The acid mine water also seeped into the Sterkfontein Caves which were already under pressure from the vacuum.
Geologists who compiled the report said that the cave's roof could cave in.
"To make things worse, the problem raised its head after most of the productive mines were already closed and all the profits which had been made - had been spent elsewhere already.
"We can... assume that none of the mines that were involved here will have enough money in their environmental funds to solve this problem effectively.
Harmony Gold recently handed the report over to the FSE after its director Mariette Liefferink appealed to the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
Harmony Gold and Mogale Gold established Western Utilities Corporation at the end of last year to pump out the acid mine water, to clean it to an extent and then to sell it to platinum mines in Rustenburg as industrial water.
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