Mining giant Sibanye-Stillwater says the biggest challenge in combating illegal mining is that South Africa's criminal justice system is ill-equipped to prosecute those responsible.
In its 2022 integrated annual report released this week, the company said surface illegal miners were generally only charged with trespassing and required to pay a R300 admission-of-guilt fine.
“Reported incidents of illegal mining are reduced by the bribery, or coercion, of employees, contractors and officials in an effort to have them turn a blind eye to illicit activity in return for the equivalent of up to four months’ salary in cash," said the company.
New York- and JSE-listed Sibanye said the country's sociopolitical instability manifested itself through the breakdown of the rule of law and the “wanton disrespect” of property rights.
“Illegal mining, and the inability of the authorities to prevent it, is one of the most pernicious manifestations of this,” Sibanye said.
It said that with public security services stretched to contain surging levels of crime, the company needs to take extra steps to ensure the safety of its employees and assets.
It seems to be getting worse, and to protect our operations we are compelled to consider all legal measures available to stop the scourge
— Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted
“These factors not only impede productivity but also impose an additional cost burden to support operating continuity.”
Illegal miners, known as zama zamas, are mainly organised and sustained by criminal syndicates and are often heavily armed.
Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted said illegal mining presented a growing material risk for Sibanye's operations. “It seems to be getting worse, and to protect our operations we are compelled to consider all legal measures available to stop the scourge.”
In 2022 Sibanye recorded 363 incidents of illegal mining and 1,115 arrests, up from 187 incidents and 473 arrests the previous year. Sibanye charged 200 employees, including contractors, for aiding and abetting illegal miners in 2022 down from 239 in 2021.
Sibanye said illegal mining, particularly at its gold operations, posed a major risk to the sustainability and safety of its operations as a result of attacks on employees and security personnel and damage and theft of property.
“Employee safety is threatened through being offered financial inducements to assist illegal miners, or directly threatened and forced into doing so,” said the company.
It said indirect threats to employees from illegal mining were an increased risk of toxic fumes as a result of illegal miners burning cables underground to remove plastic casing, and the threat of electricity or communication disruptions due to illegal theft of copper cable.
There are also direct threats to staff. In June last year an electrician was shot dead at the Cooke 4 mine, southwest of Johannesburg, during a shoot-out between mine security and an armed gang of 150 zama zamas.
In 2017 Sibanye employees at Cooke 4 helped illegal miners enter the company's underground operations, resulting in a decision by the company to halt the operations.
Sibanye's gold operations include Beatrix, Kloof, Cooke and Driefontein. It also owns the Marikana, Rustenburg and Kroondal platinum group metals (PGM) mines. It said while gold mines were the main target of illegal miners, the company's local PGM operations were increasingly victims of cable theft by criminals accessing remote underground concessions.
“At our Marikana operations we experienced almost a fourfold increase in the number of cable theft incidents between Q1 to Q4 2022, which resulted in significant disruption to production while power was restored,” Sibanye chair Vincent Maphai and CEO Neal Froneman said in a joint review.
“This is in addition to surface substations being targeted by criminals where sadly an employee was killed during an armed attack by illegal copper thieves at our Cooke operations,” said the company.
According to the Minerals Council, combating illegal mining and theft from mines costs its members R2.5bn on security annually.
“Illegal mining is a source of major social conflict with serious negative impacts on human life and security, and significant damage to property, infrastructure, and the environment. In addition, the theft of copper cables, and damage to equipment that contains copper- and gold bearing materials lead to production stoppages, losses, and adverse environmental impacts,” said the council.
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