South Africa Looks to Rehabilitate Dormant Mines

South Africa, a nation that has been mining gold for more than 130 years, is now seeking to reconfigure long-dormant or out-of-use mines as part of an effort to support local mining communities and help provide jobs.

The mining industry in South Africa has been declining for years and the result has been countless abandoned mining facilities, plants, worker housing, and pipelines in complete ruin.

South Africa has been the source for nearly one-third of all the gold mined globally in the history of the planet, but industry in the country has been contracting in recent years due to a rise in operating costs combined with harder-to-mine, deeper deposits.

After apartheid was ended in 1994, the government of South Africa put forth regulations to ensure that mining companies would better support local communities where they operated.

But repurposing old mines and facilities is something that is easier said than done. When companies are not able to find alternate uses for the facilities, the equipment can be demolished and sold for scrap.

Harmony Gold is one of the mining companies that has led the way with new uses for its mining facilities. At a decommissioned leaching plant in South Africa's Free State province the company has transformed a field into a crop of sugar beets that will be used for biofuel.

The leacher is being converted into a "digester" that will transform the biofuel into methane gas which will be used to power gold extraction at another Harmony plant.

In the Orkney area west of Johannesburg, AngloGold Ashanti has donated a former mine-owned clinic to the local community as well as converted several disused housing units into police stations.

In 1970, South Africa made up nearly 80% of the worldwide gold production. Last year, the country ranked 6th overall.

Remodeling and repurposing mines has also had another added benefit: lower crime. Abandoned facilities are often the targets of copper, wire, and other equipment theft.

"Mining communities must remain sustainable the day after the mine closes," mines minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi told Reuters.

"When we talk about mine rehabilitation we are not talking about just putting back the sand, but actually rebuilding those communities," he said.