A rush of coal prospecting applications raises new fears about mining around Mapungubwe National Park, a world heritage site of cultural and environmental importance. Yolandi Groenewald investigates Mining threatens the transfrontier conservation area that already has too many elephants for its shrinking space. Photo: Yolandi Groenewald At least 23 prospecting licences have been granted around the edges of Mapungubwe National Park, and mining companies are moving in to exploit a rich coal seam running through the world heritage site. Oxpeckers has established that at least one of the licences fall within a no-mining buffer zone set up around Mapungubwe by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The prospecting is taking place in one of South Africa’s most water-stressed regions. Water from the Limpopo river is already overcommitted, regional droughts are the norm, and environmentalists have been asking for years where the water will be found for mining activities that could result from the prospecting. Mapungubwe National Park, one of South Africa’s nine world heritage sites, lies smack in the middle of a coal seam of precious coking coal that runs from Zimbabwe to South Africa. A world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed at the site in 1933, and Mapungubwe was inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List in 2003. Unesco does not allow mining in heritage sites and requires a buffer zone around a listed site where no mining can take place. In the case of Mapungubwe, this requirement was tested nearly a decade ago, when Australian company Coal of Africa established its Vele Colliery in the buffer zone. Coal of Africa, known as MC Mining since 2018, was not the only company sniffing around Mapungubwe. A prospecting licence was granted to Micawber 639 in 2009 allowing it to prospect on farms that fall within the buffer zone approved by Unesco. Micawber stated in its application for the prospecting licence that it was owned jointly by Aphrodeities Mining, a local 100% BEE-compliant company, and Canadian mining company Takara Resources. Wendy Nqenqa, the chief executive at Aphrodeities Mining, was regarded as a rising star in the mining industry in the late 2000s, although she has been quiet of late. Micawber has since entered a joint venture with Indian mining company IG Resources, according to two sources who did not want to be named. Oxpeckers unearthed evidence of a dispute between the two companies in the Johannesburg High Court in 2016, though the status of their current relationship is unclear. Neither company responded to requests for comment on the Mapungubwe venture. The world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed at the Mapungubwe heritage site in 1933. Photo courtesy Solve Ayanda Shezi, spokesperson for the Department of Mineral Resources, said official records show 23 prospecting licences have been granted in the vicinity of Mapungubwe World Heritage Site. South African National Parks (SANParks) spokesperson Rey Thakhuli said it was aware of at least five prospecting licences near the national park and had brought them to the attention of its mother body, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF). “It will be handled at the departmental level. SANParks only gets involved at a commenting stage as an interested and affected party,” Thakuli said. He did not want to comment on the Micawber prospecting licence, saying prospecting and mining applications are dealt with on a case-to-case basis. The DEFF did not respond to questions from Oxpeckers, despite being given several weeks to do so. Farmers and landowners in the area confirmed that vast amounts of coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal and required for heating in the production of steel, had been found. They fear it is only a matter of time before mining starts. The remoteness of the area and Vele’s financial problems had dampened the enthusiasm of the miners to commence with new projects, but the development of Limpopo’s flagship Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (SEZ) a few kilometres away from Mapungubwe will create the necessary infrastructure to support coal mining in the area, the sources on the ground said. Vele mine on the right now falls outside Unesco’s buffer zone, but the game farm where prospecting is taking place is inside the buffer zone. A road to the Botswana border post at Pontdrift separates the game farm from Mapungubwe National Park Vele mine was given the green light after environmentalists and SANParks officials negotiated an offset agreement with the mining company as a condition to it obtaining a mining licence.