Assessing the Impact of Mining Legislation in the Design and Development phase of Opencast Coal Mining Projects in South Africa
| dc.contributor.author | Matambele, Thusani Comfort | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-01-21T08:18:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2014-01-21T08:18:53Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2014-01-21 | |
| dc.description | MBA thesis | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | It is a well-known fact that South Africa is rich with coal resources. Remaining coal reserves are estimated to be at least 69 billion metric tonnes. Both underground and opencast mining methods are used to extract the energy mineral in South Africa. South Africa uses its coal domestically as well as internationally for electricity generation and heating in the Iron and Steel industries. After the promulgation of South Africa‟s constitution, numerous mining related acts were passed in order to address social, economic and environmental factors in a sustainable way. The study sought to assess the positive and negative impacts of mining legislation in the design and development phase of opencast mining projects. An empirical, interpretivist and simple qualitative design approach was used. Data was collected from mining consultants, government authorities and mining companies through face to face semi-structured interviews. The study found that positive impacts of mining legislation on the budget, time and quality of opencast coal mining projects were: Standardised requirements to enter the mining sector, world class drafted legislation, timelines on authorisations, promotion of environmental consciousness and up-skilling of officials involved in authorisation processes. The negative impacts were: Lack of alignment on pieces of legislation, absence of timelines in some acts, turf war between the Department of Minerals Resources (DMR) and the Department of Environmental and Water Affairs (DWEA), long lead times to issue water use licences and environmental authorisations, insufficient clarity on Social Labour Plans and Political influence on authorisations. Recommendations on negative impacts are: Legislation harmonisation, proper and equal remuneration of staff involved in authorisation, site inspection by authorities, and clarity on SLP and stakeholder engagements | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net10539/13561 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Open cast mining | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Coal mining | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Mines and mining | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Mining legislation | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Assessing the Impact of Mining Legislation in the Design and Development phase of Opencast Coal Mining Projects in South Africa | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |