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A sustainable society is a society that satisfies its resource requirements without endangering the sustainability of these resources. The mineral endowment on the African continent is estimated to be the first or second largest of world reserves. Therefore, it is recognised that the African continent still heavily depends on mineral exports as a key contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP) of various countries. These mining activities, however, do introduce primary and secondary environmental degradation factors. They attract communities to these mining areas, light and heavy industrial establishments occur, giving rise to artisanal activities. This study focussed on satellite RS products as an aid to a mine’s operations and the monitoring of its environment. Effective operational mine management and control ensures a more sustainable and profitable lifecycle for mines. Satellite based RS holds the potential to observe the mine and its surrounding areas at high temporal intervals, different spectral wavelengths and spatial resolutions. The combination of SAR and optical information creates a spatial platform to observe and measure the mine’s operations and the behaviour of specific land cover and land use classes over time and contributes to a better understanding of the mining activities and their influence on the environment within a specific geographical area. This study will introduce an integrated methodology to collect, process and analyse spatial information over a specific targeted mine. This methodology utilises a medium resolution land cover base map, derived from Landsat 8, to understand the predominant land cover types of the surrounding area. Using very high resolution mono- and stereoscopic satellite imagery provides a finer scale analysis and identifies changes in features at a smaller scale. Combining these technologies with the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) applications for precise measurement of surface subsidence or upliftment becomes a spatial toolbox for mine management. This study examines a combination of satellite remote sensing products guided by a systematic workflow methodology to integrate spatial results as an aid for mining operations and environmental monitoring. Some of the results that can be highlighted is the successful land cover classification using the Landsat 8 satellite. The land cover that dominated the Kolomela mine area was the “SHRUBLAND/GRASS” class with a 94% coverage and “MINE” class of 2.6%. Sishen mine had a similar dominated land cover characteristic with a “SHRUBLAND/GRASS” class of 90% and “MINE” class of 4.8%. The Pléiades time-series classification analysis was done using three scenes each acquired at a different time interval. The Sishen and Kolomela mine showed especially changes from the bare soil class to the asphalt or mine class. The Pléiades stereoscopic analysis provided volumetric change detection over small, medium, large and recessed areas. Both the Sishen and Kolomela mines demonstrated height profile changes in each selected category. The last category of results focused on the SAR technology to measure within millimetre accuracy the subsidence and upliftment behaviour of surface areas over time. The Royal Bafokeng Platinum tailings pond area was measured using 74 TerraSAR-X scenes. The tailings wall area was confirmed as stable with natural subsidence that occurred in its surrounding area due to seasonal changes of the soil during rainy and dry periods. The Chuquicamata mine as a large open pit copper mine area was analysed using 52 TerraSAR-X scenes. The analysis demonstrated significant vertical surface movement over some of the dumping sites. It is the wish of the researcher that this dissertation and future research scholars will continue to contribute in this scientific field. These contributions can only assist the mining sector to continuously improve its mining operations as well as its monitoring of the primary as well as the secondary environmental impacts to ensure improved sustainability for the next generation. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Science)

Department of Ecology and Resource Management / MENVSC

[pt] Este trabalho utiliza o caso do desastre de Mariana (2015) como casogatilho para analisar a abordagem jurídica das corporações no contexto de produção econômica de falhas em barragens de rejeito. A personalidade jurídica de corporações carrega o mistério de ser similar a uma pessoa física, juridicamente, ao mesmo tempo em que completamente diferente de uma pessoa humana quando vista por fora da dimensão jurídica. Assim sendo, é analisado o conceito de personalidade jurídica corporativa conforme as teorias hegemônicas do direito, revelando suas insuficiências para abordar o caso do desastre de Mariana. Em seguida, são a avaliadas alternativas teóricas nos estudos de Evguieni Pachukanis e alguns autores que fazem referência aos seus conceitos. Os limites e potencialidades identificados na construção teórica pachukaniana conduzem à elaboração preliminar do conceito de personalidade jurídica corporativa e suas dinâmicas internas em dois passos. Primeiro, revisitando as teorias do fetichismo do capital e da forma-valor, que levam à uma melhor compreensão de formas mais desenvolvidas e fetichizadas como no caso do capital portador de juros, bem como o papel das transações jurídicas no circuito do capital. Segundo, revisitando a construção histórica da forma corporativa e dos seus atributos legais nos Estados Unidos da América e Reino Unido. Finalmente, são propostas algumas características e dinâmicas para interpretação da personalidade jurídica corporativa, considerando as variáveis descritas na análise prévia do desastre de Mariana. / [en] This work uses the Mariana mining disaster (2015) as a trigger case to analyze how corporations are legally perceived in the context of disasters, specifically, tailings dam failures. The legal personality of corporations carries the mystery of being similar to a natural person judicially at the same time that are completely different from a human person when analyzed outside of the legal realm. Under that puzzle, the corporate legal personality nature was analyzed before the hegemonic theories of Brazilian legal scholars, revealing their insufficiencies to approach the Mariana Mining Disaster. Subsequently, an alternative approach is assessed through the studies of Evguieni Pashukanis and some recent authors that endorse his main ideas. Pashukanis reveals potentialities and limits that led to a proper elaboration of the corporate legal personhood concept and its internal dynamics in two steps. Firstly, revisiting the capital fetishism and the value-form theories, which led to a better understanding of the most developed and fetishized forms of capital, the interest bearing capital, as well as the contradictory developments between the capital and productive circuits. Secondly, revisiting the historic construction of the corporate form and its legal features in both USA and United Kingdom, in order to perceive the ascension of the corporate legal personality concept. Finally, some the corporate legal personhood concept characteristics and dynamics are proposed. / [de] Diese Dissertation nimmt den Fall der Tragodie von Mariana (2015) als Ausgangspunkt, um zu analysieren, wie Unternehmen im Zusammenhang von Naturkatastrophen – insbesondere von Dammbrüchen – rechtlich wahrgenommen werden. Unternehmen als juristische Personen tragen ein Geheimnis in sich: Einerseits sind sie rechtlich gesehen den natürlichen Personen ahnlich, andererseits sind sie aber auberhalb des rechtlichen Raums ganz anders als menschliche Personen. Zunachst wird der von den vorherrschenden Rechtstheorien vertretene Begriff der Rechtspersonlichkeit des Unternehmens herausgearbeitet und dessen Unzugänglichkeiten bei der Analyse der Tragodie von Mariana werden aufgezeigt. Anschliebend wird der alternative Ansatz von Evguieni Pashukanis und seinen Nachfolgern analysiert. Die bei Pashukanis identifizierten Grenzen und Potenziale fuhren zu der Formulierung eines neuen Begriffs der Rechtspersonlichkeit des Unternehmens und deren internen Dynamiken, und zwar in zwei Schritten. Erstens werden die Konzeption des Kapitalfetischismus und die der Wertform wieder aufgegriffen, was zu einem besseren Verstandnis der entwickeltesten und fetischisiertesten Auspragungen des Phänomens führt, namlich des Falles des verzinslichen Kapitals sowie der Rolle juristischer Transaktionen im Kapitalkreislauf. Zweitens wird die historische Konstruktion der Unternehmensform und deren rechtlichen Eigenschaften sowohl in den USA als auch in Grobbritannien rekonstruiert. Zum Schluss werden einige Merkmale und Dynamiken zur Deutung der Rechtspersonlichkeit des Unternehmens vorgeschlagen, wobei die Variablen berücksichtigt werden, die in der vorherigen Analyse der Tragodie von Mariana beschrieben wurden.

Tailings are the fine-grained residues produced by processing operations, and are commonly retain residual contents of valuable and critical metals. Re-mining of tailings storage facilities (TSF) could play a crucial role in alleviating environmental problems associated with mine wastes, while recovering residual value and decreasing the volumes of tailings to be stored. Resource modelling of TSFs is complicated by their heterogeneity, which results from the sedimentary-style deposition of tailings, as well as post-depositional processes like weathering. Tailings particles are sorted based on size and density (i.e., mineralogy), generating strong systematic trends in geochemistry across a TSF. As such, TSFs should not be treated the same way as primary deposits; different sampling, spatial modelling, and processing methods may be needed, as well as adaptions to resource and reserve reporting codes. This thesis provides recommendations for the resource and reserve estimation of TSFs. To achieve this, a series of methods were developed, from best-practise sampling of TSFs for resource estimation, through to geostatistical modelling of a TSF for grade/tonnage estimation with corresponding uncertainties, to geometallurgical modelling using particle-based data.