Name: Just SA
Price range: $

Mine Rehabilitation

JUST SA aims to counter the negative environmental impacts of mining.

JUST SA aims to empower stakeholders with strategies to restore former mine lands sustainably, reducing the negative environmental impacts of mining. This involves cooperation among technical experts and decision-makers, supporting multi-level governance frameworks, and managing financial provisions for mine closure and rehabilitation. The project tests technical solutions to reduce mine water contamination and improve mine closure processes, while collaborating with government, civil society, communities and private sector entities.

Key Activities

Through a series of multi-stakeholder consultations and collaboration with various technical experts, WWF is working on the developing business cases for coal mine rehabilitation and the treatment and utilisation of mine-affected water. Through the JUST SA project, WWF maintains regular consultations with its Technical Advisory Group and facilitates dynamic exchanges of ideas, providing essential guidance, support, and knowledge sharing on policy, research, and practical solutions related to mine water treatment and land rehabilitation. These efforts underpin the technical and economic analysis being developed in the project to support solutions for mine rehabilitation and mine-affected water treatment. This multi-stakeholder engagement enhances collaboration and knowledge exchange to support sustainable mine rehabilitation and water management, integral to the project’s vision of a just transition in coal-dependent regions.

WWF plans to host community dialogue sessions and workshops that will allow for a participatory approach with local communities to identify needs-based solutions around the issues around mine rehabilitation and mine-affected water.

As part of WWF's work in the project, cooperation and knowledge exchange platforms are established with multiple stakeholders to test and model different approaches to mine closure and water treatment. This collaborative effort aims to explore and refine solutions that support environmental rehabilitation and sustainable management of mine-affected water and land resources.

WWF aims to develop multi-level governance approaches, provide policy advice to ensure sustainability of mine closure, and develop a proposed regional mine closure strategy and roadmap for Mpumalanga

Results and Highlights

5 Technical Advisory Group Sessions

have been held where experts discuss the treatment and utilisation of mine water and rehabilitation of coal mines

Develop

a regional mine closure strategy and roadmap for Mpumalnaga

Develop Technical Solutions

based on a feasibility study to assist in the rehabilitation of mining land or water endorsed by the technical advisory group

Brugspruit Site Visit

One key activity includes a pre-feasibility study focused on revitalising the Brugspruit Water Pollution Control Works (BWPCW) in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga. Commissioned in 1997 to treat mine-affected water from abandoned coal mines, the BWPCW has been non-operational since 2006, leading to ongoing pollution risks for local water resources and communities.
This study will assess options to refurbish, repurpose, or reimagine the facility as a demonstration site for inclusive, low-carbon mine water treatment, aligning with the project’s goals for environmental restoration, circular economy initiatives, and socio-economic upliftment in the context of South Africa’s just transition away from coal.