Up to five people are feared dead in SA’s worst tailings dam collapse since the Merriespruit disaster almost three decades ago.
The dam at a long-disused diamond mine in the Free State town of Jagersfontein burst its banks early on Sunday morning, sweeping away nine houses and severely damaging 20 more.
A preliminary report shows 28 people were left with minor injuries while four were in hospital in a “very critical condition” and there were three to five suspected fatalities, mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe said at a virtual media briefing on Sunday afternoon.
The Jagersfontein disaster is similar to the bursting of the Merriespruit tailings dam in the Free State town of Virginia in February 1994, which left 17 people dead and 80 houses destroyed. Tailings dams, also known as slimes dams, store waste from the mining process.
The burst Jagersfontein tailings dam appears to have been located on a dormant diamond mine that was previously owned by De Beers but was sold to a group of black investors known as the Superkolong Consortium in 2010. De Beers said at the time of the transaction that the Jagersfontein mine and tailings had produced some of the world’s largest diamonds while it was being operated between 1870 and 1971.
The Minerals Council SA, which expressed shock at the disaster, said the Jagersfontein mine and tailings dams are not owned by any of its members.
It has no information on the ownership structure or management standards of the assets yet, said the council, which represents more than 90% of SA’s mining companies.
The cause of the dam burst is not yet known, it said.
Asked about who is ultimately responsible for the disaster, Mantashe said the owners of the dam will be held liable. Citing the Merriespruit disaster he said the government will use the Virginia tragedy and its outcome as a template for dealing with the incident in Jagersfontein, a town about 100km from Bloemfontein.
“This is not the first disaster of this kind that we are facing. It’s a similar accident [to Merriespruit] and therefore that precedent is going to guide our action in dealing with this one,” Mantashe said. “A company that is the owner will take the bigger responsibility. The state will assist in facilitating that action. Compensation in terms of fatalities ... [and] damage to property will be a responsibility of the company that owns the slimes dam.”
He said that while his department has “no jurisdiction”, it will be irresponsible of it to close its eyes to the crisis.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit the site of the disaster on Monday, the presidency said on Sunday. He sent condolences to the victims’ families and wished survivors a swift recovery.
The world’s worst tailings dam disaster, at the Brumadinho mine in Brazil owned by Vale, killed 270 people in 2019 and prompted a campaign to get the mining industry globally to increase its commitment to high standards of tailings and waste management.
“The Minerals Council continues to encourage its members to review their tailings management operational standards and ensure they are aligned with the International Council on Mining and Metals’ global standard on tailings management,” the council said in a statement on Sunday.
It added that it has offered whatever support it could to authorities and that it has also asked its members to assess their practices.
theunisseng@businesslive.co.za
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