Following the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s environmental authorisation for prospecting of chrome and platinum on 200ha of land on Zilkaatsnek earlier this year and landowners’ appeal, no answers are forthcoming from the prospectors.
Landowners are waiting for feedback or prospecting activity and receive no feedback. The land in question is adjacent to Zilkaats Estate and Preserve where prospecting was done a few years ago and no minerals were found. The environmental authorisation for the current application concerns portions of 11 farms starting on the border of the R513 to the N4 in the north, totalling 200ha. Despite landowners’ objections and heated public participation meetings over the past two years, the department granted authorisation in January.
Senzomanzi (Pty) Ltd was appointed by Tshime Holdings (Pty) Ltd to be their independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) to lodge the application on their behalf, conduct consultation and compile a Basic Assessment Report (BAR). Tshime Holdings (Pty) Ltd has applied for prospecting rights for chrome and platinum group metals.
Landowners have appealed the decision but have received no response from the department.
“There are landowners who want to sell their farms and others whose sales are now on hold as a result of the prospecting application. We don’t know what is going on,” one said.
The land in question is in the Magaliesberg Biosphere buffer zone. Only the biosphere core is protected by law. There are no laws protecting the buffer and transitional zones.
Kormorant has contacted Tshime Holdings for information on the progress and future plans but did not receive a response.