Educational mining experience with Menar Academy and Khanye Colliery coal mine

I am glad that I got the opportunity to be part of Mining Journalism Training 2019 because I learned a lot from the two-day training. Before this training I had no knowledge about mining but, now I know that there are positives to mining. Even though the negatives outweigh the positives of mining, there is still hope for mining in South Africa we just need investors.

Journalists are responsible for reporting and educating communities about mining, this helps to close the gap between mining companies and communities.

Day one, we learned about the history of mining and its state today. How mining in South Africa was huge in the 1950s until the 80s when figures went down and mining companies could not recover from the fall.

Day two, we visited the Khanye Colliery opencast mine in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng. The mine’s goal is to produce 200 000 tons of coal a month. The opencast mine started operating in December 2017 but the mining of coal started on January 2018 and has over 350 employees. Last month they mined about 160 000 tons of coal and the plant washed 150 000 tons of coal and sold in the export market

It may seem like there is no hope for mining in South Africa. However, coal mines had 86 919 employees in 2018 despite the mining industry facing job losses.

I learned that even mines have lifespans and the average lifespan is about 16 years. All mining companies are required to consult with the community before they could start operating. There is lot of paper work and legislation that need to be followed when applying for a mining license.

Overall it was an educational training and I got to experience the everyday life of a miner at the coal mine.

Khanye Colliery

Betty Moleya attends the Khanye Colliery site tour

By Betty Tebogo Moleya