Community Casebook on Mining and Environment

The document provides a legal primer on the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) and details four community-led legal battles in South Africa to protect land rights and ensure transparency in mining operations.

• 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 Constitutional Court established a three-part standard for the duty to consult: the community must be informed of the application, provided with sufficient detail to judge the impact, and the applicant must consult in good faith to manage negative impacts.
• Communities that own land or are in the process of registering it via land claims can apply for a 'preferent right' under Section 104 of the MPRDA, giving them the first opportunity to prospect or mine their own land.
• The Maccsand case established that a mining right granted by the national government does not exempt a company from complying with local land-use laws, such as the Land Use Planning Ordinance (LUPO), meaning local authorities have a say in whether mining occurs in their areas.
• The AmaDiba community's experience highlights that the appeal process can be excessively slow, with the Minister taking nearly three years to decide an appeal, and that mining companies may simply correct flaws to re-apply for rights.
• The Bakgaga Ba-Kopa case demonstrates that communities can use the Trust Property Control Act and the Master of the High Court to force traditional authorities to be transparent about the management of funds received from mining companies.

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} }