But the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape is increasingly being threatened by mining activities. This was not unexpected, as there were two existing diamond mining operations and various coal mining
Unesco does not allow mining in heritage sites and requires a buffer zone around a listed site where no mining can take place. In the case of Mapungubwe, this requirement was tested nearly a decade ago, when Australian company Coal of Africa established its Vele Colliery in the buffer zone. Coal of Africa, known as MC Mining since 2018, was not the only company sniffing around Mapungubwe.
A view of the Mapungubwe landscape, home to a wealth of cultural riches. South African Tourism/Flickr, CC BY Challenges with mining in the area became particularly evident following the confrontation between the Save Mapungubwe Coalition and Coal of Africa, now MC Mining.
Mapungubwe coal mining licence granted savingwater. CoAL Africa announced on Tuesday it was awarded a licence by the deparment of minerals to set up an opencast coal mine and a power station, called Vele coal mine/Mulilo power station, in the buffer zone of the ecologically sensitive and culturally valuable Mapungubwe.
A view of the Mapungubwe landscape, home to a wealth of cultural riches. South African Tourism/Flickr, CC BY Challenges with mining in the area became particularly evident following the confrontation between the Save Mapungubwe Coalition and Coal of Africa, now MC Mining. The legal battle exposed the inefficiency of South Africa’s heritage laws, arising from severe fragmentation between
The case centres on the establishment of the Vele colliery in Musina, Limpopo Province, by Limpopo Coal Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Australian mining company Coal of Africa CoAL . The mining area is some 8500 ha in extent and, taking into account the full life of the mine, will at one stage lie 7km from the borders of the Mapungubwe National Park.
Background Information on Mapungubwe This coal mine is of grave concern to the civil society organisations due to their concerns for the sensitive landscapes in and around of the mining area; the statutory prohibition against mining on those portions of the mining area that have been proclaimed nature reserves; the archaeological and other
around the Mapungubwe National Park, a world heritage site and the lo ion of the company’s Vele colliery. Vele, primarily a coking coal resource, used to be the focal point of environmentalists’ resistance to mining in the sensitive area, and to the rampant disregard for environmental good practice in the emerging coal sector at large.
CoAL and the coalition have been at loggerheads over development of the coking coal mine for the past 18 months because of its proximity to the Mapungubwe National Park. The two sides have set a deadline of January 31 next year by when the MOU should be converted into a memorandum of agreement MOA .