Two years ago the company managing the Jagersfontein mine was ordered to cease operations after failing to comply with conditions relating to the disposal of waste water.
On Sunday morning, the mine’s tailings dam wall collapsed.
The deluge of water and mud swept away cars and houses in the mining town of Jagersfontein in the Free State. At least one death was confirmed as rescue workers searched the area, while scores were injured and left homeless.
A pregnant woman was among at least 35 people taken to hospital with injuries.
The provincial department of water affairs issued the directive in 2020 to Jagersfontein Development for its failure to comply with conditions in its water use licence.
In the document, the provincial head of department said the company had exceeded the volumes authorised for disposal on the fine tailings storage facility.
The department deemed the use of the dam “improper” given the risk identified in a report by a consulting company.
“In the said report the engineers identified a serious risk in association with the fine tailing disposal facility that is the subject of this directive. As such the report recommended further assessments and indicated that the data could be used for an emergency preparedness plan. You have also not submitted your response to the recommendations of the said report or what you plan to do with its findings,” read the directive.
The company was instructed to cease operations until it had complied.
Mines are supposed to conduct annual audits to evaluate if they meet the requirements, and must have a water management plan in place, as well as a water monitoring system and an emergency plan.
— Carin Bosman, water governance specialist
Jagersfontein Development compliance officer Marius de Villiers told TimesLIVE Premium on Sunday afternoon that the company had complied with the directive. He would provide evidence of compliance later as he was on his way to Jagersfontein.
De Villiers said the cause of the collapse had yet to be established and there would be a full investigation into the incident.
Water governance specialist Carin Bosman said mine tailings dams were subject to regulatory requirements regarding design, construction, operation and monitoring.
“These regulatory requirements are based on international best practices. Operating requirements include maintaining capacity for floods with a one in 100 year intensity, as well as maintaining freeboard of 0.8m to make provision for wave action and emergency requirements. Operating requirements also dictate the slope gradient of the edge of the tailings dam to prevent the failure of the sidewalls.”
“If these requirements are followed, mine tailings dams will not fail. Mines are supposed to conduct annual audits to evaluate if they meet the requirements, and must have a water management plan in place, as well as a water monitoring system and an emergency plan.”
“If this mine had these measures in place, the dam would not have failed,” she said.
groundWork director Bobby Peek said if there were contraventions by the company, the directors and owners should be held accountable.
“If there were contraventions of their water use licence, groundWork calls on the present directors and owners to be held responsible for the disaster, and more importantly for De Beers, who originally owned the operations and made huge profits from the operations, to take responsibility of their historical operations.”
He said if government was serious about a just transition, the previous mine owners and its subsidiaries must be held accountable and pay for the clean up and full rehabilitation.
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