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News and announcements from EE Publishers  Issue 232, August 2013
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Please share this invitation with all interested persons. All are welcome.

You, your friends, colleagues and all interested persons are invited to attend an OPEN PUBLIC DEBATE hosted by EE Publishers on:

   
Solutions and funding models for the Acid Mine Drainage problems of South Africa
 
DATE: Thursday 29 August 2013
TIME: 15h30 for 16h00 to 18h30, followed by a cocktail party till 20h00
VENUE: Axiz Auditorium, corner New Road and Sixth Road, Midrand
COST: R80 per person attending, payable at the door; no cost for bona fide working editors, journalists and camera crew covering the debate
 
 
The debate will be chaired by Prof. Tracy-Lynn Humby, an eminent environmental law expert at the School of Law in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, who will table the motion for debate, namely 
 
"Mining benefited the South African economy as a whole, so it is reasonable to expect that all taxpayers should pay for AMD remediation and rehabilitation through the fiscus, as this is the cost of development".  
 
The presenters are a mix of expert key players in the AMD space, with environmental, science, technology, engineering, industry and business backgrounds, as follows:

Mariette Liefferink, CEO, Federation for a Sustainable Environment
Prof. Anthony Turton, Consultant and water scientist
Ken Bouch, Divisional head: Fraser Alexander Water Treatment
Eddie Milne, Chief financial officer, Mintails SA
 
(Click the above links for full CVs of the presenters)
 
After the debate, a networking cocktail party will be provided with hot and cold snacks, wine, beer and soft-drinks.
 
  
INTRODUCTION
 
Various acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment technologies are being presented to government as the "solution" to the AMD problems facing South Africa, often with little understanding of the complex roots of the problem, and with the taxpayer being asked to foot the bill. 
 
Acid Mine Drainage
 
It is only fitting that we should now debate the technologies and business models that underpin these proposed solutions, so that we can collectively make informed decisions over issues that in effect will determine the country's transition to a post-mining national economy, and that are thus of great importance to South Africa as a young democratic nation.  
 
Join the debate to learn more about the issues, solutions and the funding models, and have your say!   
 
FORMAT OF THE DEBATE  
 
Each presenter will be given 15 minutes to discuss the problem, the technology solutions and possible funding models, and argue the case, after which the chair will entertain discussion, argument and clarifications from the floor and between presenters. Each presenter will then be given five minutes to wrap up. A vote with be taken on the motion before and after the debate, to determine the final mood of the audience, and the impact of the presentations and argument.
   
 
BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
 
The mining of gold, initially in the Witwatersrand, but later in the Free State, was the original driver of economic development in South Africa. Mining revenues were taxed by the state, and this funded virtually all the major infrastructure in the country.

  

During the early industrialisation, major state-owned or state-assisted enterprises such as Iscor, Sasol and Eskom emerged, which were deemed to be of national strategic significance. Coal mining became increasingly important for these enterprises, and South Africa also became a major exporter of coal.   
 
The strategic importance of mining was elevated in the latter years of the apartheid era, when South Africa was increasingly isolated as a pariah state. The state's response was to protect mining as a matter of survival, which created a specific business model centred on maximising profits by externalising costs as far as possible. This maximised revenue streams to the state in the face of comprehensive external economic sanctions and the growing resistance to apartheid.  
 
This business model allowed the costs associated with environmental rehabilitation to be taken off balance sheet and out of the regulatory domain. This enabled an embattled state to survive for decades, but failed to create the governance structures needed to plan for the transition to a post-mining economy.   
 
This failure of governance resulted in three specific elements emerging as present-day constraints to economic development:
  • Insufficient capital was set aside to fund post-closure rehabilitation.
  • Insufficient incentives were given for the development of technology needed for the post-closure rehabilitation of mine-impacted landscapes.
  • Insufficient attention was given to policy development capable of guiding a transition from a mining to an as yet ill-defined beneficiation-type economy.
When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, all these legacy issues were simmering in the background, but were generally lost in the noise of the moment. During this period, a major mining house delisted from the JSE and silently re-bundled its assets with the knowledge that the proverbial chickens were about to come home to roost. These troublesome chickens came in three forms:
  • In the coal-mining areas of Mpumalanga, the energy epicentre of our national economy, the agricultural potential of what used to be one of the richest food production areas of the country was lost to AMD.
  • Embattled gold mining companies fell like dominoes as the cost of production escalated, which resulted in the shutting down of pumps that dewatered the three major mining basins. The Western Basin became the first to decant AMD to surface in 2002.
  • Eskom ran out of steam in 2008 when the externalisation of costs model manifested as an inability to recapitalise the electricity industry. 
Today we are confronted with the stark reality that South Africa's future economic development is being constrained by our past business model. 
   
 
Join the debate to learn more about the issues, solutions and the funding models, and have your say!
 
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