Jonathan Watts: South African community wins court battle over mining rights

By Dilip -
Environmental activists in South Africa have won a landmark legal victory after the high court ordered the government to get prior community consent before granting mining rights. The judgment represents a major victory for campaigners in Xolobeni, a community in Pondoland, who have been involved in a protracted and sometimes violent struggle against a proposed titanium mine.

Their lawyers told the court that the department of mineral resources offered a mining concession to the Australian company Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources without the prior informed consent of local residents. The proposed project aimed to generate annual revenues of £140m for the 25-year life of the opencast pit, which would have produced zircon, rutile and titanium for laptop computers, bicycles, golf clubs, watches and drill bits.


But local residents said the clearance of the dunes would destroy their homes, their culture and the ecology of the Wild Coast region. They formed the Amadiba Crisis Committee, which staged protests and launched a legal challenge that led to Thursday’s victory... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/south-african-community-wins-court-battle-over-mining-rights

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