Where mining and conservation coexist
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Where mining and conservation coexist
Diamond mining is no stranger in the Richtersveld National Park of South Africa.
By Leon Louw founder of WhyAfrica and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine.
After camping for two days in one of the most remote areas of the Richtersveld National Park (NP) in the far north of South Africa, the WhyAfrica team drove via the Hellshoogte mountain pass (Hell Heights) to Port Nolloth and saw De Beer’s diamond boat leave the harbour for another three months at sea in the afternoon.
The magic of WhyAfrica’s Road Trip is that we often stumble upon stories along the way that we didn’t plan for at all.
On the treacherous dirt road to Alexander Bay and the mouth of the Orange River, we had a flat tyre and five minutes later a haul truck stopped and offered assistance.
Diamond miners in the park
The truck belonged to the mining team at Grasdrif Diamond mine, a new mine that is 20% owned by the local Nama trust and a company called Nabis Diamonds.
The mine started operating in August and is located close to the Kokerboom Kloof campsite in the Richtersveld NP.
Mining is allowed in this extremely unique and sensitive national park, and two other diamond mining companies have concessions here. They are Lower Orange River Diamonds at Sendelingsdrift (the old TransHex operation) and African Star Minerals, also close to Sendelingsdrift.
Preserving Nama history
The Richtersveld National Park sits in one of the most remote, rugged and arid regions of South Africa. It was proclaimed a national park in the early 1990s as South Africa’s first contractual national park.
The land is owned by the Nama community and leased to the South African National Parks under a joint-management arrangement that preserves Nama pastoral traditions.
Ecologically the Richtersveld is part of the Succulent Karoo (the world’s only arid biodiversity hotspot) best known for its extraordinary succulent diversity and high endemism, including halfmens trees, quiver trees and dense cushions of tiny succulents.
A river full of diamonds
The Orange River runs through the park and carries alluvial diamonds downstream. Historically large alluvial operations (including firms such as Trans Hex) worked gravel deposits along the riverbanks, leaving a contested legacy of mining, rehabilitation responsibilities and community negotiations.
Today the park combines cultural landscape protection with conservation of a globally important biodiversity hotspot, while providing a living space for Nama grazing practices and increasingly cooperative cross-border tourism and improved relationships with mining companies within the park.
WhyAfrica visited this surreal landscape to find out more about the Richtersveld, its people, the mining companies involved and the complex dynamics at play against one of the most stunning backdrops in southern Africa.
It is a developing story that I would suggest WhyAfrica readers and followers continue following.
Image credit: Leon Louw for WhyAfrica
Where mining and conservation coexist