Illegal gold rush in Springs sparks regulatory alarm

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JEREMY MAGGS: South Africa’s latest gold rush, it seems, isn’t unfolding in a corporate boardroom or an industrial mine. It’s actually happening in a township outside Springs in Gauteng, where unemployed men and women are digging with pickaxes and wheelbarrows, all in the hope of striking it rich.

Driven by soaring global gold prices and I guess, a desperation for income. But here’s the problem. No formal mining rights, uncertain geology and potential legal and environmental risk. This frenzy is raising urgent questions about regulation, compliance and the safety of those drawn into the scramble.

I want to talk about that with Advocate Mmadikeledi Moloto, who’s deputy director-general of compliance monitoring and enforcement at the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR).

Advocate, thank you very much for talking to me today. What exactly is happening in Springs? Do you think this is a legitimate prospecting boom or simply informal digging by people driven by poverty.

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: We need to separate issues because from our side, where we sitting as the department, that is an unlawful and illegal act that is being conducted there.

Our law is very clear, the Mineral Petroleum Resources Development Act, it says anybody who wants to apply for any permit or right or whatever needs to go through a process of application and you go through the assessment (regarding) safety, environmental and so on until we approve it.

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But anybody who then decides to go and conduct any mining related activity, they are doing it at their own peril. It’s not safe, it’s risky, and we are asking them to desist from doing that.

JEREMY MAGGS: Have you reached the point, then, where the activity has crossed the line, and that you now need to apply some kind of enforcement?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: From the minute it started, Jeremy, it crossed the line because it violated everything. It violated the municipal bylaws. It violated the Mineral Petroleum Resources Development Act.

It also violated the rights of the owner of the land. It was just wrong from the beginning. If we allow it to continue, Jeremy will be setting the wrong precedent.

JEREMY MAGGS: How does the department then differentiate, Advocate, between artisanal and informal digging and illegal mining, which you’ve then said to me, has to be stopped, or at the very least, regulated?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: I’m going to start with artisanal and small-scale mining because we use them interchangeably.

Those are legitimate permits that adhere to environmental authorisation and safety standards. Then they are organised into either co-ops or small firms, and they are locally focused on livelihoods, and then they are traceable and can be linked to compliant buyers.

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They are subject to inspections in terms of our law. They have rehabilitation obligations and they are also eligible to support in terms of the support that we have for artisanal and small-scale miners.

We’ve got a fund in the department where we assist small-scale and artisanal mining miners to go through a programme, because we understand that applying for a mining permit is very costly.

Now that’s artisanal and small-scale mining. When it comes to illegal mining, it’s the opposite. They operate without permits. They evade environmental and safety laws.

We have seen from experience that they are run by armed syndicates, driven by illicit markets and they are often linked to money laundering and smuggling. Then they also avoid oversight, obviously, and there is a high risk of collapse.

Whatever that they are doing in Springs, God forbid, if anything happened to those walls collapsing, we will have a problem.

They’re also causing pollution and community violence because remember in that area there are communities nearby who are watching and maybe they are asking themselves, should we join them? If everybody can come to our neighbourhood and start digging, maybe we should join them.

Read: Informal mining in South Africa is here to stay [Jan 2025]

So it can also cause potential community violence, and they are subject to criminal investigations because we are saying that illegal mining is a criminal activity and must be dealt with by law enforcement like they deal with any other criminal activity.

JEREMY MAGGS: Advocate, the last thing that anyone wants to witness is a tragedy, as you rightly say. But I guess the department would also need to recognise the deep desperation of people involved in this activity.

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: Desperation is something else but conducting a criminal activity as well.

Because, Jeremy, if we allow everybody to just wake up and go and dig anywhere in South Africa, we’re going to have a problem. We need to make sure that we manage this situation to say, what you’re doing is wrong, it’s got health and safety risks.

There are dangers there, please desist from doing that.

JEREMY MAGGS: Advocate, in terms of managing the situation, what is your department either doing right now or at least recommending to those authorities who are empowered to do so?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: We are in collaboration with law enforcement to say that we will go on site to warn them, to first warn them of the dangers of what they are doing, the risks, the health and safety, damaging the water sources and so on.

Read: Death and desperation in SA’s illegal gold mines [Jan 2025]

Then later on, then law enforcement will have no choice but to do their work after they were warned.

Because we come in peace, we warn people to say, please move away, desist from doing this, this is illegal, this is dangerous, this can cause health and safety risks, please move away.

JEREMY MAGGS: At this point, Advocate, do you know how many people are involved in this activity in Springs?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: From a distance, when the team went there, and I’m estimating, this is not necessarily from head counting, but we’re looking at about 250 to 300 people who could be scavenging there.

JEREMY MAGGS: You talk about illegal mining in South Africa, Advocate, and obviously being linked to criminal syndicates or zama zamas, as you’ve said, billions lost in revenue. This is one example, but is the problem in South Africa accelerating, and are we likely to see more of this pattern emerging, such as we are witnessing in Springs, do you think?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: I wouldn’t say that because we are out there as the department workshopping communities to say, come to the department to assist you in terms of applying for small-scale mining permits.

We are even in the process, as we speak, of amending the current law that I spoke about to make sure that this small-scale mining, is included within the framework of the law, and then they are properly assisted.

These are some of the measures that we are introducing in conjunction with what we are currently doing in terms of assisting them financially.

We understand that this is people’s livelihood, but then we are weighing up poverty against crime, and I understand people are desperate, but you cannot be desperate and conduct illegal activity.

JEREMY MAGGS: Advocate, just a final question then, to the best of your knowledge, does this particular area in Springs show potential for gold? If it does, do you know why formal mining companies or prospectors are not stepping in legally? Is it about geology, or is there also concern about regulatory and policy barriers which could be part of the problem?

MMADIKELEDI MOLOTO: I wouldn’t know if there is any gold-bearing material of any economic value until we make an assessment in terms of the geology, our geologists going there, our scientists going there to confirm.

I wouldn’t say talking to you now, but what I could say about artisanal mining and in (industrial) mining, I’m just trying to draw a distinction between big operating mines and artisanal mining that will be different.

For instance, artisanal mining will not be ideally underground because there are safety considerations underground, the fall of ground, the poor ventilation and so on.

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We encourage them to do surface mining until they then graduate into big or metal mining and then they can go underground. For now, we would like them to start on the surface.

But what we see happening there, they have not prospected because before you mine you need to prospect, and in prospecting you go and search if there are any minerals first. Secondly, if there’s any economic value on those minerals.

So surely those people have not done that process, and we cannot confirm if there’s any gold-bearing material of economic value at the moment.

JEREMY MAGGS: Thank you very much indeed. In conversation there with Advocate Mmadikeledi Moloto, deputy director-general of compliance monitoring and enforcement at the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources. Advocate, thank you.

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