TASK TEAM ON MINING IN SENSITIVE AREAS: SUPPORT FROM NON-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

A letter from the Centre for Environmental Rights to the South African Ministers of Mineral Resources and Water and Environmental Affairs, offering support to a newly established task team focused on mining in sensitive areas and proposing a formal request to prohibit mining in areas of critical biodiversity and hydrological value.

• The Centre for Environmental Rights and a coalition of NGOs and CSOs are concerned about the environmental impacts of both existing and abandoned mines, as well as new prospecting and mining rights applications in South Africa.
• The authors argue that granting mining and prospecting rights in areas of critical biodiversity and hydrological value is a waste of resources for the Department of Mineral Resources, the Department of Environmental Affairs, provincial authorities, and CSOs, and may violate the Constitution, the National Environmental Management Act, 1998, and the Minerals and Petroleum Resource Development Act, 2002.
• The Centre for Environmental Rights intends to formally request that the Minister of Mineral Resources use her discretion under section 49(1) of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 to prohibit prospecting and mining rights in specific geographical areas of critical biodiversity and hydrological value.
• The coalition proposes using existing scientific research and mapping from SANBI, the CSIR, and the Departments of Environmental Affairs and Water Affairs to identify the most critical areas for the purpose of public consultation.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2010). TASK TEAM ON MINING IN SENSITIVE AREAS: SUPPORT FROM NON-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CER-Letter-to-Ministers-Sonjica-and-Shabangu-July-2010.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. TASK TEAM ON MINING IN SENSITIVE AREAS: SUPPORT FROM NON-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS. 2010. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CER-Letter-to-Ministers-Sonjica-and-Shabangu-July-2010.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=TASK TEAM ON MINING IN SENSITIVE AREAS: SUPPORT FROM NON-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS |date=19 July 2010 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CER-Letter-to-Ministers-Sonjica-and-Shabangu-July-2010.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2010task, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{TASK TEAM ON MINING IN SENSITIVE AREAS: SUPPORT FROM NON-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2010}, month = jul, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CER-Letter-to-Ministers-Sonjica-and-Shabangu-July-2010.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }