Integrated Water and Wastewater Management Plan for the Mamatwan and Middelplaats Manganese MInes

Hotazel Manganese Mines (Pty) Ltd (HMM) holds a Mining Right, an Environmental Management Programme for the opencast manganese mine known as Mamatwan Mine (MMT Mine), which South32 operates, and the mothballed underground manganese mine known as the Middelplaats Mine (Middelplaats Mine) located approximately 25 km south of the town Hotazel, in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality and Joe Morolong Local Municipality of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

The MMT Mine is an opencast mining operation that has been operational since 1964 and the Middelplaats Mine is an existing mothballed underground manganese mine that was closed in 1985. South32 proposes to source water from the mothballed Middelplaats Mine underground workings (via the decommissioned vertical shaft) and a new borehole located at the MMT for backup purposes in the event of process water shortages at the MMT Mine. Furthermore MMT Mine would like to commence with the use of the Top-Cut Stockpile area due to the expansion of its operations. The top-cut stockpile will be utilised to store low-grade top-cut material. This material will be crushed and sold to prospective buyers as aggregate.

HMM has prepared a Water Use License Application in terms of the National Water Act (NWA)’s requirements of the Regulations Regarding the Procedural Requirements for Water Use Licence Applications and Appeals, 2017 (GN R 267 of 2017) (WULA Regulations, 2017), The Integrated Water and Wastewater Management Plan (IWWMP) Report will be submitted to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR), an independent firm of environmental consultants, has been appointed by HMM to manage the Water Use Licence Application (WULA) process in support of the proposed Project.

Status

PUBLIC REVIEW

The IWWMP report has been submitted to DWS and Interested and Affected Parties (I&AP) are invited to submit comments on the proposed water use license application. The IWWMP Report is available on the SLR website (https://www.slrconsulting.com/public-documents/) or (https://slrpublicdocs.datafree.co/public-documents/) for a review period of 60-days. All comments received will be forwarded to DWS.

Please submit any comments, queries or objections to SLR via the contact details provided by 16 May 2025.

You are receiving this information because you are registered on SLR’s database of I&APs for this proposed Project. If you supply your contact details as a new I&AP, you will also be included in this database. It is assumed that as an I&AP for this proposed Project, you authorise SLR to retain and use your Personal Information as part of a contact database for this and/or other environmental authorisation related processes and that you confirm your acceptance for SLR to contact you regarding this processes.

SLR will not process your Personal Information other than as permitted or required by environmental authorisation processes or as required by law or public policy. SLR will use reasonable, appropriate security safeguards in order to protect Personal Information and to reasonably prevent any damage to, loss of, or unauthorised access or disclosure of Personal Information, other than as required for environmental authorisation processes or as required by any Law or public policy. You may request for your Personal Information to be deleted from the I&AP database at any time by contacting SLR.