Abstract
M.Sc.
The gold mining industry in South Africa is exposed to various legal issues due to the nature
of its operations. Furthermore, there has been a renewed focus on environmental management
in South Africa over the past decade, as well as an international focus on sustainable
development. Environmental management in the gold mining industry must incorporate
sustainable development, as well as the ‘cradle to grave’ concept.
The gold mining industry has to ensure that its activities are compliant with environmental
legislation and best practice requirements, as the increase in environmental awareness and
legislated principles has escalated gold mines’ exposure to demands for the remediation and
reparations of pollution and environmental degradation.
No single document exists that provides the gold mining industry with detail on the
environmental legislation and best practice requirements that gold mines are able to refer to in
order ensure effective environmental management. Furthermore, there is no implementation
plan for gold mines to implement in order to achieve compliance with environmental
legislation and best practice requirements. This study has presented such a document, as it has
provided the reader with detail concerning the responsibilities of the regulatory authorities,
the current and new legislation, best practices, codes of practices, and offences and liabilities
that gold mines will become exposed to should they not adhere to environmental legislative
requirements. This detail has been used to compile an implementation programme (Chapter
4), which when implemented will ensure environmental compliance for the gold mining
industry in South Africa.
This mini-dissertation has thus provided the gold mining industry with an overview from
which to work in order to become legally compliant with issues pertaining to environmental
management in South Africa.