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A water tanker at an open-pit mine. Keeping haul roads wet is a simple, low-tech method of controlling dust at mine sites (photo: MCC).
environment
design to ensure that this water is contained and re-
cycled where feasible or treated if it to be discharged
from the mine.”
He adds that with water being a scarce commodity
virtually throughout South Africa, mines have a duty
to use it as sparingly as possible. “The technologies to
achieve this are available,“ he says. “Water loss from
seepage, for example, can be solved by lining tail-
ings dams, water reservoirs, waste rock dumps and
similar facilities while evaporation from waste water
facilities can be reduced by filtering slurry to extract
as much water as possible for use elsewhere on site.”
He adds that there are opportunities at many mines
to cut down on the usage of potable water in plant
and mining processes by replacing it with water of a
lower quality.
Shepherd emphasises that it is important for South
Africa’s coal mining industry to avoid repeating in
the emerging Waterberg coalfield the mistakes made
in the Witbank coalfield. “We’ve only got one shot at
this,” he says. “If we get it wrong in the Waterberg,
the impact will be far worse than it has been around
