Regulation 31 Amendment Report And Environmental Management Programme for Listed Activities and Amendment Associated with the Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province SUBMITTED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATIONS IN TERMS OF THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACT, 1998 (ACT NO. 107 OF 1998) (NEMA) AND THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT WASTE ACT, 2008 (ACT NO. 59 OF 2008) (NEM:WA) IN RESPECT OF LISTED ACTIVITIES THAT HAVE BEEN TRIGGERED BY APPLICATIONS IN TERMS OF THE MINERAL AND PETROLEUM RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT, 2002 (ACT NO. 28 OF 2002) (MPRDA) (AS AMENDED). Name of Applicant: Sweet Sensations Vaal Sand (Pty) Ltd Tel no: 071 640 6388 Fax no: - Remainder of the farm De Pont 228 S171 (near Vaal Eden) Vaal Eden Postal Address: Ngwathe Free State Province Remainder of the farm De Pont 228 S171 (near Vaal Eden) Vaal Eden Physical Address: Ngwathe Free State Province File Reference Number SAMRAD: DMRE Ref. No. FS30/5/1/2/2/10018 EM This document has been prepared by Digby Wells Environmental. Report Type: Regulation 31 Amendment and EMPr Project Name: Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province Project Code: SWS6801 Name Responsibility Signature Date February 2021 Modiegi Monaledi Report Compiler Updated May 2021 Claire Report Reviewer February 2021 Wannenburgh Kelly Tucker Senior Reviewer February 2021 Mia Smith OpsCo Reviewer February 2021 This report is provided solely for the purposes set out in it and may not, in whole or in part, be used for any other purpose without Digby Wells Environmental prior written consent. DIGBY WELLS ENVIRONMENTAL i www.digbywells.com Regulation 31 Amendment and EMPr Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province SWS6801 IMPORTANT NOTICE In terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002 as amended), the Minister must grant a prospecting or mining right if among others the mining “will not result in unacceptable pollution, ecological degradation or damage to the environment”. Unless an Environmental Authorisation can be granted following the evaluation of an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Environmental Management Programme report in terms of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998) (NEMA), it cannot be concluded that the said activities will not result in unacceptable pollution, ecological degradation or damage to the environment. In terms of section 16(3)(b) of the EIA Regulations, 2014, any report submitted as part of an application must be prepared in a format that may be determined by the Competent Authority and in terms of section 17 (1) (c) the competent Authority must check whether the application has taken into account any minimum requirements applicable or instructions or guidance provided by the competent authority to the submission of applications. It is therefore an instruction that the prescribed reports required in respect of applications for an environmental authorisation for listed activities triggered by an application for a right or a permit are submitted in the exact format of, and provide all the information required in terms of, this template. Furthermore, please be advised that failure to submit the information required in the format provided in this template will be regarded as a failure to meet the requirements of the Regulation and will lead to the Environmental Authorisation being refused. It is furthermore an instruction that the Environmental Assessment Practitioner must process and interpret his/her research and analysis and use the findings thereof to compile the information required herein. (Unprocessed supporting information may be attached as appendices). The EAP must ensure that the information required is placed correctly in the relevant sections of the Report, in the order, and under the provided headings as set out below, and ensure that the report is not cluttered with un-interpreted information and that it unambiguously represents the interpretation of the applicant. DIGBY WELLS ENVIRONMENTAL ii www.digbywells.com Regulation 31 Amendment and EMPr Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province SWS6801 OBJECTIVE OF THE REGULATION 31 AMENDMENT PROCESS The objective of the Regulation 31 Amendment process is to, through a consultative process─ ● determine the policy and legislative context within which the proposed activity is located and how the activity complies with and responds to the policy and legislative context; ● identify the alternatives (including the No-go alternative) considered, including the activity, location, and technology alternatives; ● describe the need and desirability of the proposed alternatives, ● through the undertaking of an impact and risk assessment process, inclusive of cumulative impacts, which focused on determining the geographical, physical, biological, social, economic, heritage , and cultural sensitivity of the sites and locations within sites and the risk of impact of the proposed activity and technology alternatives on the these aspects to determine: ● the nature, significance, consequence, extent, duration, and probability of the impacts occurring to; and ● the degree to which these impacts— o can be reversed; o may cause irreplaceable loss of resources; and o can be managed, avoided or mitigated; ● through a ranking of the site sensitivities and possible impacts the activity and technology alternatives will impose on the sites and location identified through the life of the activity to— ● identify and motivate a preferred site, activity and technology alternative; ● identify suitable measures to manage, avoid or mitigate identified impacts; and ● identify residual risks that need to be managed and monitored. DIGBY WELLS ENVIRONMENTAL iii www.digbywells.com Regulation 31 Amendment and EMPr Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province SWS6801 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Sweet Sensation Vaal Sands (Pty) Ltd (Sweet Sensation) has an approved Mining Right (DMRE Ref. No. FS30/5/1/2/2/10018 MR) and Environmental Management Programme (EMPr) (DMRE Ref. No. FS30/5/1/2/2/10018 EM) in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002) (MPRDA) and National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998) (NEMA). The Mining Right and EMPr was approved on 11 October 2016 and allows Sweet Sensation to undertake sand mining on the Remaining Extent (RE) of the farm De Pont No. 228, situated in the Free State Province. The Mining Right Area (MRA) amounts to 101.2877 ha, although only 95 ha is being mined currently. Sweet Sensation commenced with sand mining activities in 2017. The Mining Right will expire on 30 March 2026. Digby Wells Environmental (hereafter Digby Wells) was contracted by Sweet Sensation to submit an application for an amendment of the approved EMPr in order to include screening into the mining process, which was previously not assessed or included in the EMPr, aimed at improving efficiency and to maximise the saleable product. The application for amendment was submitted on 28 May 2020 to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in accordance with Regulation 29(a) of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations, 2014 (GN R 982 of 4 December 2014 as amended) (the EIA Regulations, 2014). A number of objections were subsequently received from the various Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs). After receiving these objections, the DMRE requested that a Regulation 31 Amendment Process is followed, which would require that additional specialist assessments be undertaken and a Regulation 31 Amendment Report be compiled. This Project therefore serves to apply for the inclusion of the screening process into the EMPr in accordance with a Regulation 31 Amendment Process. The specialist studies advised by the DMRE to be conducted as part of this process and assessed the impacts associated with the inclusion of the screening process are: ● Air Quality Assessment; ● Fauna and Flora Assessment; and ● Noise Assessment. The remaining specialist studies were conducted to address the concerns that were raised by the I&APs during the Regulation 29 Amendment Process and include: ● Heritage Site Management Plan and Chance Find Procedure; ● Traffic Assessment; ● Third party review of Closure Cost Assessment compiled by Dorean Environmental Services in 2020; and DIGBY WELLS ENVIRONMENTAL iv www.digbywells.com Regulation 31 Amendment and EMPr Sweet Sensation Sand Mine, Free State Province SWS6801 ● Rehabilitation Assessment. It should be noted that this Project only focuses on the proposed screening process. Sweet Sensation EMPr approved on 11 October 2016 will remain in place and applicable to the entire mining operation and mining process. Therefore, this EMPr will serve as an addendum to the EMPr approved on 11 October 2016 for Sweet Sensation. Project Applicant The details of the Project applicant are included in the table below. Company name: Sweet Sensations Vaal Sand (Pty) Ltd Contact person: Graham Rogers Remainder of the farm De Pont 228 S171 (near Vaal Eden) Vaal Eden Physical address: Ngwathe Free State Province Telephone: 071 640 6388 Cell phone: 071 640 6388 Email: [email protected] Project Background The Sweet Sensation Project area is situated near the settlement of Vaal Oewer, approximately 35 km northeast of the town of Parys within the Ngwathe Local Municipality, in the Fezile Dabi District Municipality of the Free State Province. Sweet Sensation is an operational sand mine, which during the sand excavation process, some of the sand layers and clay were mixed