Paul Stober and Eddie Koch
A GOLD mine on the West Rand has contaminated a nearby wetland with radioactive materials, according to a study carried out by mining consultants.
“It is a major environmental problem which has to be dealt with,” said Randgold Geology and Exploration head Mark Bristow, who headed the study.
The wetland is located 5km from Kagiso, but Bristow said there was no evidence that residents of the township face any immediate health hazards: “On the basis of what WesGold told us, the water in the wetland is not used for human consumption.”
Bristow conducted the evaluation of the mine after First Wesgold’s recent bid to take over Randgold. Randgold shareholders are set to make a decision on the offer on Thursday.
Randgold is using Bristow’s study as part of a campaign to prevent the hostile takeover bid by WesGold’s owners, Fraser Alexander. The takeover includes a proposal that Randgold shareholders should purchase the West Rand mine.
The study warned that Randgold would have to pay up to R50-million to rehabilitate the contaminated mine. This would mean containing the water from the mine and preventing it from flowing off the mine’s premises, said Bristow.
Another problem identified by the study was the presence of dust, with indications of radioactivity, blowing off the mine. The dust could increase the risk of lung cancer.
The WesGold mine, once the richest uranium producer in South Africa, has two processing plants on its premises. One is contaminated with radioactive material and has been closed, the other is still operating.
According to Bristow, it appears that radioactive waste is leaking from the southern processing plant into the drainage system which ends in the Wonderfontein wetland.
During flights to measure radioactivity on the mine and the area immediately surrounding it, Bristow’s team found high concentrations of radioactivity in the wetland. In two boreholes on the southern border of the mine, the team found traces of hexavalent chrome, known to be extremely carcinogenic, and concluded that the chrome was “leaching into the property and the neighbouring water-drainage system”.
First Wesgold could not be reached for comment on the report.
The National Union of Mineworkers has entered the fray by demanding that the PWV government launch an immediate investigation into the impact of radioactive waste in the mining industry on the health of workers and neighbouring residents.
The NUM is also opposed to the attempted takeover of Randgold by Fraser Alexander because it regards the latter as a mining group hostile to organised labour. The union says Randgold has a more progressive labour-relations policy and is open to union participation in environmental rehabilitation and other health and safety issues.
“These disclosures (of radioactive contamination) provide shocking evidence of negligent disregard for the health of employees and residents alike, and an exploitative approach to mining, in which profits are reaped with scant regard for the social and environmental costs,” said the NUM general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe.The disclosure of the contamination on the West Rand follows a report by the Council for Nuclear Safety (CNS) that about 10 000 workers are being exposed to higher than nomal levels of radioactivity in the gold mine industry.
The CNS this month told a commission of inquiry into health and safety on the gold mines that 9 600 workers are exposed to radioactive dust and gas clouds in the workplace that range between 20 and 50 milliSieverts each year. The international safety limit for radioactive inhalation is 20 milliSieverts.
Such exposures could result in a higher rate of lung tumours among mineworkers. The radioactive dust comes from uranium and a substance called thorium. Radon gas combines with these to form a toxic cloud in underground areas and reprocessing plants. All three radioactive substances are byproducts of gold mining.