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Zitholele Consulting Reg. No. 2000/000392/07 PO Box 6002 Halfway House 1685, South Africa Building 1, Maxwell Office Park, Magwa Crescent West c/o Allandale Road & Maxwell Drive, Waterfall City, Midrand T : 011 207 2060 F : 086 674 6121 E : [email protected] TECHNICAL REPORT Water Use License Application (WULA) for the Grootegeluk Mine in Lephalale, Limpopo Province. Report No: 19145 Submitted to: Exxaro Coal (Pty) Ltd Grootegeluk Mine, Nelson Mandela Dr, Lephalale, 0555 04 February 2021 19145 Directors: S. Pillay, N. Rajasakran Associate Directors: N Govender, J. Heera (Ms.), T. Kaponda, Dr. M. Vosloo i DOCUMENT CONTROL SHEET Project Title : Water Use License Application (WULA) for the Grootegeluk Mine in Lephalale, Limpopo Province Project No : 19145 Document Ref. No : 19145-46-Rep-001-Grootegeluk WULA-Rev0 DOCUMENT APPROVAL ACTION DESIGNATION NAME DATE SIGNATURE Jessica Prepared Junior EAP 09 June 2020 Morwasehla Senior Tebogo 25 January Reviewed Environmental Mapinga 2020 Scientist Senior Tebogo Approved Environmental 03/02/2021 Mapinga Scientist ZITHOLELE CONSULTING ii RECORD OF REVISIONS Date Revision Author Comments 09 June 2020 0 Jessica Morwasehla Issued for comments ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 iii 19145 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background Information .................................................................................. 1 1.2 Regional setting and location of activity ........................................................... 1 1.3 Property description ........................................................................................ 1 1.4 Purpose of the WUL Application ...................................................................... 2 1.5 Contact Details ................................................................................................ 2 1.6 Environmental Assessment Practitioner .......................................................... 4 Expertise of the Environmental Assessment Practitioner ................... 5 2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION.............................................................................. 6 2.1 Description of activity ...................................................................................... 6 2.2 Extent of activity .............................................................................................. 6 3 REGULATORY WATER USE FRAMEWORK................................................. 9 3.1 Summary of all water uses. ............................................................................. 9 3.2 Existing lawful water uses. .............................................................................. 9 3.3 Relevant exemptions ....................................................................................... 9 3.4 Generally authorised water uses. .................................................................... 9 3.5 New water uses to be licensed. ..................................................................... 10 4 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ............................................................................ 11 5 ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS ..................................................................... 11 5.1 Ecological process ........................................................................................ 11 5.2 Climate .......................................................................................................... 11 5.3 Topography and soil ...................................................................................... 12 5.4 Geology......................................................................................................... 12 5.5 Hydrology ...................................................................................................... 12 5.6 Socio-economic environment ........................................................................ 12 6 IMPACT ASSESSMENT ............................................................................... 13 7 WATER BALANCE. ...................................................................................... 13 8 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................. 16 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1: Project Locality Map ........................................................................................ 3 Figure 2-1: MCWAP Locality Map...................................................................................... 8 Figure 7-1: Schematic representation of the mine’s water balance .................................. 14 Figure 7-2: Quantities of the mine’s water balance ......................................................... 15 ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 iv 19145 LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1: Applicant’s contact details ................................................................................ 2 Table 1-2: Details of the Environmental Assessment Practitioner ...................................... 4 Table 2-1: Water uses applied for ...................................................................................... 7 Table 3-1: Section 21 (a) Water Use to be licenced. ........................................................ 10 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: CVs of Project Team Appendix B: Water Balance Tech Memorandum Appendix C: Stakeholder Database ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 1 No: 19145 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information Exxaro Coal (Pty) Ltd, (Exxaro) has appointed Zitholele Consulting (Pty) Ltd (Zitholele) to undertake a Water Use Application Process for the Grootegeluk Mine in Lephalale; for the abstraction of water from a water resource in terms of Section 21 (a) of the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998), as amended (NWA). At present Exxaro Coal (Pty) Ltd is authorized to abstract 6.88 Mm3/a (Mining & Industry) & 720 000 m3/a (Power Generation), which amounts to 7.6 Mm3/a of water through the Mokolo Crocodile River Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP-I) scheme Phase 1, to augment the process water needed at the mine as well as use in future projects & expansions. This application is linked to the second phase of the Mokolo Crocodile River Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP-II) and intends to increase the current allocation of 7.6 Mm3/a to 8 Mm3/a. The additional 0.4 Mm3/a will ensure that Exxaro future water needs are met considering all future projects. According to the abstraction agreement currently being finalized, should the S21 (a) abstraction license be granted it will replace the existing abstraction license once the Mokolo Crocodile River Water Augmentation line form Vleëpoort becomes operational. It should also be noted that Exxaro Coal (Pty) Ltd is currently in the process of transferring the 720 000 m3/a allocated to Power Generation back to Mining and Industry. This amendment process is separate from the MCWAP-II application and for this purpose this application the focus will be the abstraction of 8 Mm3/a from the Mokolo Crocodile River Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP-II). 1.2 Regional setting and location of activity The Grootegeluk Mine is located approximately 20 km from the Lephalale Town in the Limpopo Province. The Grootegeluk mine site falls within the Lephalale Local Municipality and the Waterberg District Municipality and is situated on the following farms which makes out the Mining Rights area, Grootegeluk 459 LQ, Enkelbult 462 L, Daarby 458 LQ, Leeuwdrif 312 LQ, Hierontrent 460 LQ and Turfvlakte 463 LQ. Refer to Figure 1-1 for a locality map. The abstraction point will be situated at the Exxaro pump station which is located on Portion 3 of farm Grootestryd 465 in Lephalale, which falls with the jurisdiction of Lephalale Local Municipality. The Pump Station is located approximately 16.7km for the Lephalale Town in Limpopo Province, refer to Figure 1-1. 1.3 Property description The Exxaro Pump Station where the abstraction will take place is located on Portion 3 of Farm Grootestryd 465 LQ which is owned by Exxaro. The pump station is located south east of the ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 2 No: 19145 Grootegeluk Mine and it is approximately 6.4km from the mine. The property is owned by Exxaro (Pty) Ltd. 1.4 Purpose of the WUL Application This WULA Technical Report has been compiled to meet the following objectives: • To characterise the present status of the site; • To motivate for the proposed application; • To formulate measures to obtain outstanding information, and • To compile an action plan to ensure that management of water balance and storage on site. The purpose of the report is to provide a planning framework that will achieve site specific objectives related to the management of water. These objectives will be set to relate to corporate environmental policy, regulatory requirements, and legal compliance. 1.5 Contact Details The contact details of the relevant persons representing the applicant are given in Table 1-1 below. Table 1-1: Applicant’s contact details APPLICANT Exxaro Coal (Pty) Ltd (Grootegeluk Mine) ADDRESS Nelson Mandela Dr, Lephalale, 0555 CONTACT PERSON Filomaine Swanepoel DESIGNATION Senior Specialist Environment TEL 083 662 1104 EMAIL [email protected] ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 3 No: 19145 Figure 1-1: Project Locality Map ZITHOLELE CONSULTING 04 February 2021 4 No: 19145 1.6 Environmental Assessment Practitioner Zitholele Consulting (Pty) Ltd is an empowerment company formed to provide specialist consulting services