Wild Coast mining case crystallises need to listen to communities
A case is playing out in the High Court in Pretoria between a community fiercely resisting mining on its land, and the Department of Mineral Resources and the company that wants to set up a mine. The matter speaks directly to the unhappiness communities feel about the mining industry and underpins their demands to be included in discussions to formulate a new Mining Charter. The Umgungundlovu community on the Wild Coast says its concerns have been largely ignored by the department and Transworld Energy and Resources, which wants to establish a titanium mine along a 22km stretch of dunes in the Eastern Cape. The dispute has dragged on for more than a decade and fractured the small community of some 600 people, with violence and murders marking this matter out as one of significance for the way in which mining is perceived by impoverished rural communities who have historically had to make way for mining operations. The Umgungundlovu community, central to the dispute around the Xolobe...
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