Bold promises of progress clash with rural mining realities

"'Tranquillity' and 'progress' are both loaded, relative terms, shaped by the perceptions of the various parties who stand to win or lose from a particular situation.

- By Tony Carnie

For Thys Blom, a Port Shepstone development planning consultant hired by the new SA Lithium group, the benefits of the new Highbury mine at uMzumbe are numerous. They include a R2.4-billion capital investment into the local economy; the creation of hundreds of new jobs in an impoverished rural area; mining royalties for the fiscus; the upgrading of district road networks and the production of lithium-ion batteries as part of the global transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy.

SA Lithium representative Ian Harebottle asserts that the company has already created more than 800 direct or indirect jobs for local residents (though Blom presented a significantly lower estimate in his official development motivation to the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality last year, stating that the project would lead to an estimated 100 new jobs in the first year, rising to just over 300 jobs by the 20th year of mining).

Whatever the numbers turn out to be, unemployment rates in the surrounding rural area are high, creating the ingredients for potential division and conflict as residents compete for jobs, haulage contracts and other opportunities, while also contemplating who really benefits and loses from living in the shadow of an opencast mining pit and crushing plant for the next 25 years.

For the residents of eChibini, Magog and Umsinsini, "progress" is likely to include regular blasting noise and clouds of dust, and those living closest to the mine are also required to evacuate their homes periodically during blasting operations. There are also fears that families may lose their homes and land as mining expands over the 1,200ha mining site.