Fynbos near Napier, South Africa.
A company called Cienth Pty Ltd. has applied for a permit to explore around 4,200ha of farmland in the Overberg Highlands for gold, silver and tin ore.
It would then be able to apply for an exclusive 30-year mining permit covering the area, which is located just outside Napier on the southern tip of the African continent.
This has alarmed winemakers in the region, who fear that productive farmland will be destroyed, food security will be threatened and jobs will be lost.
‘The consequences of this application being approved are too terrible to contemplate,’ said Bruce Jack, one of South Africa’s most renowned winemakers, who owns The Drift Estate in the region.
‘Unfortunately, things are stacked against us, and time is of the essence. It appears that whoever is behind this application is determined to succeed and has substantial resources, both financial and otherwise.’
Cienth Pty Ltd. does not have a website, and it is unclear who is behind the company. It has applied to South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources & Energy for the permit.
Wynand Wessels, chairman of the Napier Farmers’ Organisation, is driving the opposition to the prospecting application.
Elsaine Costerus-Möhr, an environmental lawyer representing the organisation, said: ‘In my experience, I have seldom ever come across a prospecting right which does not progress to a mining right.
‘If this happens, the landowners, farmers and even their descendants will not see rehabilitation in their lifetime, and no financial provision will be sufficient to fill
