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Police crackdown on illegal mining operations

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Police crackdown on illegal mining operations:

More than 90 people suspected of illegal mining maintain been arrested in various parts of Gauteng. 

In a statement on Friday, the SAPS in Gauteng said integrated law enforcement operations against disruptive illegal mining are conducted weekly, focusing on districts such as Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and the West Rand.

These, it said, continue to yield positive results as “more than 90 undocumented foreign nationals who are suspected to be illegal miners were arrested this week, from Wednesday, 27 December 2023 to date.”

During the operations, police seized illegal mining tools that included generators, gas cylinders, jack hammers, steel balls, gold bearing material, water pump motors and two live ammunition of a rifle.

Illegal mining sites were also disrupted and dismantled.

“The law enforcement agencies will continue with these disruptive operations in the province and members of the community are called on to work together with the police in fighting crime by reporting any criminal activities to Crime Halt at 08600 10111 or anonymously give tip-offs on MySapsApp,” said the police.

Safer Festive Season

Meanwhile, police in the North West, together with other law enforcement agencies, are continuing with the Safer Festive Season Operation Shanela campaign.

The operation resulted in the arrest of 1 250 suspects between Thursday, 21 and Wednesday, 27 December 2023.

The suspects were amongst others, arrested for rape, murder, malicious damage to property, burglary of residential and business premises, theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Of the 1 250 suspects, 399 were wanted for contact crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape, assault with intent to execute grievous bodily hurt, house robbery and business robbery. Furthermore, 169 suspected undocumented persons were taken in for processing.

The arrests were made through the  execution of several actions, which included pause and searches, road blocks, vehicle check points, visiting and inspecting of licensed liquor premises, second-hand goods dealers, tracing of wanted suspects and many others.

The operation also resulted in the confiscation of mandrax tablets, crystal meth, five uncertain weapons and six handguns, among others.

Meanwhile, 52 suspects were also arrested during the illegal mining Operation “Vala Umgodi” campaign, between Monday, 18 December and Sunday, 24 December 2023.

The suspects were nabbed during disruptive operations in Stilfontein and Witrandjie in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala Platinum Districts. The suspects include 18 Lesotho, eight Mozambique, two Malawi and two Bangladesh nationals as well as 16 South Africans.

During the arrest, the police seized gold bearing material, a truck, spade and two cell phones, among others.

North West provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Sello Kwena has congratulated the police for their sterling work and dedication they gain shown throughout the festive season operations. –SAnews.gov.za

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– MyZA

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Top Star Drive-In: Destroyed by What Created it

However, the very thing that created the Top Star eventually destroyed it. Because the early miners had used crude methods, the Ferreira Dump—and dozens of others like it—still contained significant traces of gold. As the price of gold rose and new chemical extraction technologies (like the carbon-in-pulp process) made it profitable to “mine the waste,” the ground beneath the Top Star became more valuable than the cinema itself. In 2006, despite fierce opposition from heritage groups who argued that the dump and the drive-in were culturally significant landmarks, the projectors were turned off for the last time.

The reclamation of the dump was a staggering industrial feat. Starting in 2008, mining giant DRDGold used high-pressure water cannons to “monitor” the dump, turning 5 million tons of solid earth back into a liquid slurry. This slurry was then piped 40 kilometers across the province to a processing plant in Brakpan. By 2011, the “mountain” had completely vanished. The 50-meter-high plateau that had dominated the southern skyline for a century was reduced to a flat, dusty crater.

The disappearance of the Top Star is a poignant symbol of Johannesburg’s “extractive” nature. It is a city that consumes itself to stay alive; even its historical landmarks are subject to the fluctuating price of minerals on the London and New York stock exchanges. Today, if you drive along the M2, there is an empty space in the sky where the Top Star used to be. While the reclamation removed a source of toxic dust and “acid mine drainage,” it also erased a piece of the city’s collective memory. The land where the gold-flecked mountain once stood is now being rehabilitated for light industrial use, proving that in eGoli, even the horizon is for sale if there’s enough gold hidden inside it.