Trans Hex faces challenge over West Coast diamond sites

Diamond miner Trans Hex faces a fresh challenge over plans to mine areas off the West Coast after Protect the West Coast (PTWC) appealed an environmental approval granted by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR).

PTWC says the approval of the environmental management programme (EMPr) relies on outdated studies dating back more than 20 years, while omitting key requirements imposed on Trans Hex in an earlier 2002 EMPr.

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Absent from the new programme is a list of the sites requiring rehabilitation identified in 2002 – and any connection between the damage done and who was responsible for fixing it.

Trans Hex is controlled by billionaire Christo Wiese and his family after it was delisted from the JSE in 2019. His son-in-law Marco Wentzel, a former Springbok, took over as CEO, with Wiese holding the position of chair.

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One of the reasons cited for the company’s delisting was to avoid drawn-out shareholder voting processes and being held to ransom by opportunistic shareholders.

The battle appears to have shifted from the boardroom to the courts, as the company faces increased scrutiny from environmental and fishing groups, as well as local communities.

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Issues

In the latest appeal by PTWC, the affected areas lie off the West Coast, adjacent to the border of the Western Cape and Northern Cape north of Doringbaai, and near the Olifants River Estuary.

“The financial provision for rehabilitation has been pushed to a future process too, which is just not lawful,” says PTWC.

“It needs to be properly budgeted for, allocated and declared before approval, not after.”

The updated EMPr claims that most of this disturbance can no longer be attributed to Trans Hex, and that what remains will naturally recover through wave action. PTWC disputes this.

It says persistent beach mining over the decades has changed the beach profile, resulting in cliff collapses and a scarred landscape.

Read: DMRE refuses West Coast prospecting bid

PTWC says the EMPr’s depiction of the current environment off the West Coast is drawn largely from desktop research and data collected between 2002 and 2004 – a fact admitted to by the document’s authors, along with a recommendation that further field work is required to bring the study fully up to date.

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Diamond prices are down post-2022, some categories more than others, due to falling demand and the growing acceptance of lab-grown alternatives.

Previous clash

This is not the first skirmish between PTWC and Trans Hex.

In 2023, the parties reached an out of court settlement agreement, then made an order of court by the Western Cape High Court, which included the creation of no-go mining areas around sensitive zones, and a requirements to upgrade the 2002 EMPr.

Read: Court challenge to 30-year extension of West Coast diamond mining rights

PTWC and other applicants in the case were also given rights to conduct annual site inspections.

Subsequent to that settlement, PTWC says public participation input from specialists was submitted but allegedly not meaningfully incorporated.

Following the 2023 court order, Trans Hex framed the settlement as a victory of sorts to its shareholders, as “it is quite clear that the [PTWC] application did not achieve its principle aims as the mining operations are continuing and the mining rights remain in good standing”.

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Activities ‘not destructive’ says Trans Hex

The company also refutes claims that its mining activities are destructive, having mined the area below the contested Doringbaai high water mark for more than 30 years.

The disturbances which lie above the high water mark were left by other mining companies and fall well outside its mining areas, says Trans Hex.

“We accordingly implore individuals to not only consider the environmental value of an area and their right to an environment (which is not absolute), but to take a balanced view, as part of a larger community, where locals benefit from economic activity and experience a better life – something they may never have the chance to enjoy without mining activity in the area,” wrote Wentzel in 2023.

PTWC says the DMPR has the power to issue environmental authorisations for mining, while its core mandate is to promote mining and play the oversight role. This authority more properly rests with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), not the DMPR.

“It is PTWC’s position that the situation on the West Coast has reached a tipping point that needs to be urgently addressed,” says the group, adding that it is not anti-mining per se, but that there are alternatives that could bring positive long-term outcomes for the environment and communities of the West Coast.

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