The Herald April 20, 2007.
By Guy Rogers Environment & Tourism Editor
IF an Australian application to mine Pondoland‘s coastal dunes is approved, short- term benefits to locals will be ensured and the value of eco-tourism enterprises will not be undermined, regional minerals and energy director Nomvuyo Ketse said yesterday.
Port Elizabeth-based Ketse is one of the key officials who will be guiding the department‘s decision on the controversial R1,4-billion application to mine the Xolobeni dunes, south of Port Edward, for ilmenite.
She was responding to questions from The Herald in an interview at the Port Elizabeth airport yesterday. [Read more…]
Posted on April 20th, 2007 by admin
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http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3788508
Opposition to Wild Coast ‘highway robbery’ grows
The Mercury: April 19, 2007 Edition 1by Tony Carnie
NEARLY 1 000 letters from South Africa and countries across the world have been pouring in to voice concern about the latest round of the Wild Coast toll-road proposals.
They include a suggestion from the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry that an Australian mining company should be asked to pay a substantial share of the costs of building a new highway to service its proposed dune mining venture just south of the Wild Coast Sun Casino. [Read more…]
Posted on April 19th, 2007 by admin
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By Richard Spoor and John GI Clarke
Australian Mining Company, Mineral Commodities LTD (MRC) has ambitions to mine titanium oxide which is concentrated in the coastal dunes of South Africa’s Pondoland Wild Coast. Their geological explorations indicate a resource of some 346 million tons of minerals in a lease area known as the Xolobeni Mineral Sands that, over an estimated 22 years of open cast mining will net their shareholders billions of dollars. [Read more…]
Posted on April 17th, 2007 by admin
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http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=107269
By: Mariaan Olivier
Published: 13 Apr 07 - 12:16
Local communities situated around Australian miner Mineral Resource Commodities’ (MRC’s) proposed opencast dune-mining area, on the Wild Coast, have filed a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission, a social worker working with the affected mining communities said on Friday.
John Clark said in a telephone interview that the communities, represented by human rights attorney Richard Spoor, last week filed their complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
The complaint had been lodged on the basis of violating the right to information relevant to the exercise or protection of rights and the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations. [Read more…]
Posted on April 17th, 2007 by admin
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The story behind the 50/50 exposé of community co-option by mining interests on the Wild Coast
By John GI Clarke
“We haven’t had this much rain ever in Pondoland before. ‘Why is this?’ people are asking. People have noticed that it is since the mining company has come to the area that all this rain has come, which is now too much for us. People are saying that it is because the mining company is disturbing the earth, the animal inside the earth has been upset, and is sending all this rain. My people believe, and I believe too, that all this rain is falling because the earth animal is angry with the disturbance of the earth by the mining company.” [Read more…]
Posted on April 17th, 2007 by admin
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‘And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work ‘em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.’
Coleridge –The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In the debate raging about the pro’s and cons of whether a Toll road and mining is appropriate as a means of development in the Pondoland center of Endemism (PCE), [Read more…]
Posted on April 15th, 2007 by admin
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