Community Casebook on Mining and Environment

The Community Casebook on Mining and Environment is a guide published by the Centre for Environmental Rights to empower South African communities facing mining or prospecting applications. It explains the legal framework of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), the duties of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), and provides four case studies where communities used legal mechanisms—including judicial reviews and appeals—to challenge mining rights or demand financial transparency from traditional authorities.

• Under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) grants two primary types of permissions: prospecting rights, typically granted for five years to search for minerals, and mining rights, granted for up to thirty years to extract minerals.
• The legal duty to consult landowners or occupiers does not require their consent for mining to proceed, but it does require that they be notified and consulted. For prospecting rights, the consultation period is 30 days, and for mining rights, it is 180 days.
• The Constitutional Court established a three-part standard for valid consultation: the community must be informed of the application, provided with sufficient detail to judge the impact (such as drilling locations and pollution risks), and the applicant must act in 'good faith' by attempting to reach agreements on managing negative impacts.
• Communities that own land or are in the process of registering a land claim may apply for a 'preferent right' under Section 104 of the MPRDA, giving them the first opportunity to prospect or mine their own land if they can prove it will benefit the community and they have the necessary technical and financial resources.
• The Maccsand case demonstrated that a mining right granted by the DMR does not exempt a company from complying with local land-use laws, such as the Land Use Planning Ordinance (LUPO), and that local authorities have the power to stop mining if the land is not properly zoned.
• Affected parties can appeal a granted mining right to the Minister within 30 days. Valid grounds for appeal include the applicant's lack of financial or technical capacity, unacceptable environmental damage, failure to meet social and labour plan promises, or failure to benefit historically-disadvantaged people.
• If an appeal is refused, communities may seek a judicial review in the High Court within six months. A judicial review cannot grant a mining right but can 'set aside' an existing right and require the Minister to reconsider the case.
• The Bakgaga Ba-Kopa case illustrates that communities can use the Trust Property Control Act to hold traditional authorities accountable for mining rentals. The Master of the High Court can be used to demand the production of trust records and accounts.
• The AmaDiba community's experience highlights that legal challenges to mining can be prolonged for years, and that success may require a multidisciplinary approach involving social workers, media strategies, and complaints to the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission.

APA

Humby, T. (n.d.). Community Casebook on Mining and Environment. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CER-Casebook-on-Mining-Final-Web.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Humby, Tracy. Community Casebook on Mining and Environment. Centre for Environmental Rights, n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CER-Casebook-on-Mining-Final-Web.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Humby |first1=Tracy |title=Community Casebook on Mining and Environment |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CER-Casebook-on-Mining-Final-Web.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{humbyndcommunity, author = {Humby, Tracy}, title = {{Community Casebook on Mining and Environment}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CER-Casebook-on-Mining-Final-Web.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }