South Africa Cost for Cleaning Up Old Mines Almost $6.6 Billion
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Closing South Africa’s owner-less and derelict mines and draining polluted water from the operations could cost almost 60 billion rand ($6.6 billion), government departments said.
The cost to close and make the mines safe was estimated at 45.1 billion rand, and a further 2 billion rand for old asbestos pits, according to a study by the Department of Mineral Resources and the Council for Geoscience. Cleaning up toxic water leaking from mines, known as acid-mine drainage, would cost about 10 billion rand, Marius Keets, chief director at the Department of Water Affairs, told lawmakers in Cape Town on Wednesday.