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Parliament - Sealing holes, reselling rights to abandoned gold-bearing areas and even building over abandoned mine surfaces were some of the measures underway to curb illegal mining in South Africa.
Chief inspector of mines, David Msiza, told Parliament on Wednesday the main concern was that ordinary people were doing the digging on behalf of "serious and dangerous" syndicates.
The department had taken a three-pronged approach in tackling the issue including promoting legitimate mining, law enforcement and rehabilitation and sealing of holes, a problem most prevalent in Ekurhuleni because of its close proximity to the OR Tambo International Airport.
It had gone as far as tabling a proposed resolution at the United Nations over the issue, because gold mined illegally in South Africa was exported to some United Nations member countries that may be inadvertently facilitating the illegal trade, Msiza said.
The resolution, titled 'Combatting transnational organised crime and its possible links to illicit trafficking in precious metals' was the first step towards other countries reconsidering laws which, for example, allow ordinary citizens to walk around carrying recently mined ore - something not allowed in South Africa.
Promoting legitimate mining
"We are promoting legitimate mining, especially in outcrops where one can see the reef, or gold-bearing areas on the surfaces. We have issued mining licences in those areas," Msiza told Parliament's audit committee meeting to analyse the department of mineral resources' performance in the past year.
Msiza said the department was rehabilitating the once active Durban Roodepoort Deep, and the Blesbokspruit Mine, involving around 300 people from local communities.
Law enforcement was also assisting, and their efforts included confiscating 220 tons of gold in Potchefstroom, arresting two syndicates also found to be in possession of 3 000 fraudulent identity documents and 16 000 fraudulent invoices totalling millions.
Miners often chose outcrops of 'visible' gold, so these areas would be re-licenced.
The holes and warrens linking illegal miners to the remaining spoils of abandoned mines were also being sealed by around 200 workers from the Council for Geosciences.
In the last financial year, the department raked in R31.8m in prospecting fees - 69% of the total revenue received by the department itself.
