Scribante Concrete proposes extracting river sand from the channel and sandbars within the Inxu River, Mhlontlo Local Municipality, OR Tambo District, Eastern Cape.
It is proposed that an excavator be used during low flow conditions to extract sand from the channel and sandbars along the river bed and bank. The sand will be stock-piled on the eastern bank of the river. The excavator will access the sandbars via ramps (slipways). It will strip the top of the sandbars to the seasonal water level. The excavator will stack the sand on the river bank and a front-end loader will be used to transfer the sand to a stockpile area approximately 15m away from the river bank. Once the material is dry it will be loaded into trucks and transported by subcontractors to an existing screening facility in Mthatha. River sand will be loaded into customers’ trucks at this facility. Oversized material will be transported back to the mining site, to be used for erosion control on the banks of the river and in existing gullies surrounding the site.
There is little permanent infrastructure (hard structures) involved in the proposed mining operation. The mining operation will be comprised of:
- Earth moving equipment;
- Stockpiles on the banks of the river;
- Loading and turning areas for trucks;
- Slipways;
- Storage area (a container to be used);
- Hardstand surface for waste collection and parking of earth moving machinery;
- A temporary toilet (portaloo) for staff (to be serviced by a third party)
The listed activities triggered by the proposed operation are as follows:
Listing Notice 1 (Government Notice R983 of 4 December 2014, as amended by Government Notice R327 of 7 April 2017):
Activity Number 21; Any activity including the operation of that activity which requires a mining permit in terms of section 27 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002), including —
(a) associated infrastructure, structures and earthworks, directly related to the extraction of a mineral resource; or
(b) the primary processing of a mineral resource including winning, extraction, classifying, concentrating, crushing, screening or washing;
Copies of the draft basic assessment report and supporting documents can be downloaded below