Cleaning up the mining mess
With about 6,000 abandoned mines across South Africa, regulators are searching for answers to irresponsible mine closure. Mark Olalde reports...
11 July, 2018
Is Mabola open for mining?
Indian company Atha-Africa Ventures is going ahead with an application to change land use at the Mabola protected area to open it to mining. Julia Thomas investigates
18 May, 2018
Cleaning up the mining mess
With about 6,000 abandoned mines across South Africa, regulators are searching for answers to irresponsible mine closure. Mark Olalde reports
11 July, 2018
Is Mabola open for mining?
Indian company Atha-Africa Ventures is going ahead with an application to change land use at the Mabola protected area to open it to mining. Julia Thomas investigates
18 May, 2018
Cleaning up the mining mess
With about 6,000 abandoned mines across South Africa, regulators are searching for answers to irresponsible mine closure. Mark Olalde reports
11 July, 2018
-
-
Is Mabola open for mining?
Indian company Atha-Africa Ventures is going ahead with an application to change land use at the Mabola protected area to open it to mining. Julia Thomas investigates...
18 May, 2018 -
Mine closure investigations win top award
Pioneering data journalism project on financial provisions for mine closures and rehabilitation is rewarded with top environmental media award...
25 October, 2017 -
No mining at Mabola for ‘the foreseeable future’
Mining at the Mabola protected water zone is on hold – for now. The status of the mining right is unclear after court action by civil society groups this week, reports Mark Olalde...
30 June, 2017 -
Watership down: the reality of mining Mabola
Mabola is a strategic water source that feeds four of South Africa's major rivers, but the government has approved a licence to mine coal there. Oxpeckers broke the story in 2015, and recently paid a site visit to the Mabola headwaters...
16 June, 2017 -
South Africa’s future without coal
The future of electricity generation is no longer guaranteed to the coal industry. Which forms of power will keep the lights on? Mark Olalde investigates...
25 May, 2017 -
R60-billion held for mines that are never closed
Never-before-seen data shows a fortune has been set aside for mine rehabilitation in South Africa. But large mines are not being properly closed, and the money cannot be touched. Mark Olalde investigates...
17 May, 2017 -
Coal mines leave a legacy of ruin
Oxpeckers publishes never-before-seen data exposing the lack of mine closures, despite R45-billion being held in financial provisions for rehabilitation in 2015. Investigation by Mark Olalde...
07 April, 2017 -
Ministers sign secret deal to mine strategic water zone
Without any public notification, South Africa’s ministers of environment and mining signed off on a coal mining project in the critical Mabola water catchment in Mpumalanga. Mark Olalde investigates Documents......
15 February, 2017 -
The reality of social and labour plans
Social and labour plans are supposed to improve life for communities affected by mining. Unfortunately, because of the fog surrounding how they operate and are enforced, these communities are often......
06 February, 2017 -
Appeal against mine expansion in wildlife corridor
Tricia Govindasamy looks into the impacts of environmental authorisation for expanding Sedibelo mine in the North West Heritage Park Corridor The expansion of a mining project that cuts through a......
23 January, 2017 -
Mine closures: What’s happening in your back yard?
After an 18-month search, Mark Olalde accessed data on mine closure trust funds, financial provisions for rehabilitation and closure certificates...
15 December, 2016 -
Seabed prospecting undermines blue economy
Ambitious government plans to grow the oceans economy are threatened by prospecting licences that would open the marine economic zone to phosphate strip mining. Mark Olalde investigates...
11 November, 2016 -
Green light for coal mine in strategic water zone
A controversial underground coal mine in a protected water catchment in Mpumalanga has moved closer to breaking ground after it was granted environmental authorisation and a water use licence. Mark Olalde investigates ...
05 October, 2016 -
Gender-based violence in SA mines is an open secret
Women now have a place in a labour-intensive workplace with heavy machinery designed for muscle, but a rough industry is struggling to get to grips with their presence underground Tholakele Nene investigates ...
21 September, 2016 -
Tales from the coalface
Activists face uphill battles when they push back against mining companies. Their stories include violence, secret deals, a lack of access to information and unenforced laws. Mark Olalde investigates ...
16 September, 2016
TOOLS
#MineAlert allows you to track and share mining applications and licences
Use ClimaTracker to track weather changes and how these will affect you
Instant access to data on rhino deaths and poaching incidents since 2010
Keep tabs on data from rhino poaching court cases across South Africa
#GreenAlert helps you track & share environmental impact assessments
GET THE DATA
GET INVOLVED
GET SOCIAL
#MineAlert Update: The Tendele Coal Mining case will be going to court on 24 August 2018. SAVE the date! To find out more about why the community is fighting Tendele Coal Mine visit #MineAlert bit.ly/2JzKu92#TendeleMine Have you bothered to meet the victims of the land and lives you are destroying?
Meet Mr Samuel Magubane. Hear his desperate plea.
“It will please my heart if the judge will do what is right”
We are concerned citizens. There is no justice where there is coal mining
#LawApplies2All
#TendeleMustFall
Court Case 24 August 2018
Are you buying imitation leopard skin – or the real thing? Here's how to tell the difference when shopping online: bit.ly/2L9vdk2 #cryptotrafficking
SA's online wildlife trade is the largest in Africa. How can you tell the difference between legal and illegal advertising on social media? Roxanne Joseph investigates
bit.ly/2L9vdk2
How to spot illegal wildlife trade on social media
oxpeckers.org
Roxanne Joseph asks questions you can use to tell the difference between legal and illegal advertising of animal products on social media#MineAlert: SA's mine closure system has failed to result in a reclaimed environment, social upliftment and post-mining economies, but @environmentza is rewriting the relevant legislation in hopes of solving some of these issues.
www.fin24.com/Companies/Mining/in-depth-cleaning-up-the-mining-mess-20180712
IN-DEPTH: Cleaning up the mining mess
fin24.com
With about 6 000 abandoned mines across South Africa, regulators are searching for answers to irresponsible mine closure, writes investigative environmental journalist Mark Olalde.#MineAlert: Hotly debated draft Mining Charter does not deal with mine closure or funds for environmental cleanup. The onus rests on Department of Environmental Affairs
bit.ly/2KP8URl
oxpeckers.org
With about 6,000 abandoned mines across South Africa, regulators are searching for answers to irresponsible mine closure. Mark Olalde reports#MineAlert is a project of Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism, and is based on #GreenAlert, which allows users to track environmental impact assessments in the same way
Supported by Code for Africa & The Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA) | Developed by ScienceLink
