Historically, irresponsible mining companies have escaped their duty to
rehabilitate. The Mineral Petroleum Resources Development Act does not oblige
mining companies to rehabilitate if their operations ceased before the Minerals
Act came into force. In the court case De Beers Consolidated Mines v Ataqua
Mining (Pty) Ltd and others 2006 1 SA 432 (T), the court held that the Mineral
Petroleum Resources Development Act is not applicable to tailings dumps that
were created through mining that had been conducted under the Minerals Act.
This ruling leaves unanswered the question about who would be liable to
rehabilitate old order tailings dumps once such tailings dumps are re-mined or
not mined at all. The aim of this dissertation is to determine whether companies
that ceased mining operations before the Mineral Petroleum Resources
Development Act came into effect could be held liable for rehabilitation by
introducing the scenario that applied in the De Beers court case. / Thesis (LL.M. (Environmental Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/8386 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Hartzer, Suzette |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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