Section A, 2nd Floor, Suite 02/B1, Norfolk House 54 Norfolk Terrace Off Blair Atholl Drive Westville, 3630 P O Box 1969 Westville, 3630 South Africa T: +27 (0) 31 279 1200 F: +27 (0) 31 279 1204 E: [email protected] www.srk.co.za 19 August 2020 Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries 473 Steve Biko Arcadia Pretoria 0083 Attention: Ms. Linda Poll-Jonker Dear Ms. Poll-Jonker Revised Public Participation Plan: Basic Assessment for the Proposed Sinter Plant at the Assmang Manganese Cato Ridge Works 1. Background and Introduction Assmang Limited (Assmang) owns and operates a manganese smelter located in Cato Ridge, west of Durban within the eThekwini Metro of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Assmang holds a Waste Management Licence (WML) for Hazardous Waste Management Activities at the Cato Ridge Works, issued in terms of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008 (NEMWA) by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) (Ref: 12/9/11/L191/4/R1) on 19 June 2015. The recycling of baghouse dust and sludge at the existing Briquetting Plant on site is included as a licensed waste management activity in Assmang’s Hazardous WML as per Activity 2 in Category B of Government Notice (GN) 921 issued in terms of NEMWA on 29 November 2013 (as amended): B(2) “The reuse or recycling of hazardous waste in excess of 1 ton per day, excluding reuse or recycling that takes place as an integral part of an internal manufacturing process within the same premises.” The storage and disposal of baghouse dust and sludge at the existing Dust Disposal Facility within the Cato Ridge Works is also licenced as a hazardous waste management activity - Activity B(7): “The disposal of any quantity of hazardous waste to land” - in terms of NEMWA. Assmang is proposing to expand it’s current hazardous waste recycling activities through the construction and operation of a new Sinter Plant on a brownfields area within the Cato Ridge Works. The proposed Sinter Plant will have a design capacity of 120 000 tons per year of sinter to replace the currently purchased sinter utilised in the furnaces. Raw materials for the sintering process include manganese ore fines and coke or calcinated anthracite fines, as well as the recycling of baghouse dust, sludge from the water sump, spillages of raw materials and mixtures and scraped material from Partners R Armstrong, S Bartels, N Brien, JM Brown, CD Dalgliesh, BM Engelsman, R Gardiner, M Hinsch, African Offices: Group Offices: W Jordaan, WC Joughin, DA Kilian, F Lake, JA Lake, V Maharaj, I Mahomed, HAC Meintjes, MJ Morris, DH Mossop, Cape Town + 27 (0) 21 659 3060 Africa GP Nel, VS Reddy, PJ Shepherd, T Shepherd, MJ Sim, VM Simposya, JS Stiff, M van Huyssteen, AT van Zyl, Durban + 27 (0) 31 279 1200 Asia MD Wanless, ML Wertz, A Wood East London + 27 (0) 43 748 6292 Australia Directors AJ Barrett, CD Dalgliesh, WC Joughin, V Maharaj, VS Reddy, T Shepherd, AT van Zyl Johannesburg + 27 (0) 11 441 1111 Europe Pietermaritzburg + 27 (0) 33 347 5069 North America Associate Partners PJ Aucamp, CM Bauman, LSE Coetser, SA de Villiers, M du Toit, SG Jones, L Linzer, JI Mainama, NG Macfarlane, RD O’Brien, S Reuther, D Visser, C Wessels Port Elizabeth + 27 (0) 41 509 4800 South America Pretoria + 27 (0) 12 361 9821 Consultants JR Dixon, PrEng, GC Howell, PrEng, PhD, PR Labrum, PrEng, RRW McNeill, PrTech Eng, Accra + 23 (3) 24 485 0928 PN Rosewarne, PrSci Nat, MSc, PE Schmidt, B.Comm, DipAcc, CA(SA), AA Smithen, PrEng, TR Stacey, PrEng, Lubumbashi + 243 (0) 81 999 9775 DSc, PJ Terbrugge, PrSci Nat, MSc, HFJ Theart, PrSci Nat, PhD, DJ Venter, PrTech Eng SRK Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd Reg No 1995.012890.07 SRK Consulting Page 2 conveyor belts as generated at the Cato Ridge Works (current arisings and historical stockpiles at the existing Dust Disposal Facility). As the recycling of baghouse dust and sludge at the proposed Sinter Plant constitutes a currently licenced waste management activity in terms of the Assmang Hazardous WML, Activity A(13) of GN 921 is considered applicable, namely: “The expansion of a waste management activity listed in Category A or B of this Schedule which does not trigger an additional waste management activity in terms of this Schedule.” The proposed project therefore requires application for a WML via a Basic Assessment process to be undertaken. Public participation is an integral component of the BA process. This document constitutes the revised Public Participation Plan for the Assmang Cato Ridge Works Proposed Sinter Plant Basic Assessment. 2. Purpose of Public Participation The purpose of the public participation process is to ensure that the issues, inputs and concerns of interested and affected parties (I&APs) are taken into account during the decision-making process. This requires the identification of I&APs (including authorities, technical specialists and the public), communication of the process and findings to these I&APs and the facilitation of their input and comment on the process and environmental impacts, including issues and alternatives that are to be investigated. A successful public participation process is one that is inclusive, actively engages the public and provides ample opportunity for the public to participate in the application process. The public participation process will allow for the following: • To provide an opportunity for all role players, including potential I&APs, environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs), state departments, organs of state, and the competent authority to obtain clear, accurate and understandable information about the environmental impacts of the proposed activity or implications of a decision. • To provide for role-players to voice their support, concerns and questions regarding the project, application or decision. • To provide the opportunity for role-players to suggest ways for reducing or mitigating any negative impacts of the project and for enhancing its positive impacts. • To enable the person conducting the public participation to incorporate the needs, preferences and values of I&AP’s into its proposed development that becomes the subject of an environmental application. • To provide opportunities for clearing up misunderstandings about technical issues, resolving disputes and reconciling conflicting interests. • To encourage transparency and accountability in decision-making. • To contribute toward maintaining a healthy, vibrant democracy. • To give effect to the requirement for procedural fairness of administrative action as contained in the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (Act No. 3 of 2000). 3. Legislative Requirements SRK has taken cognisance of the requirements for public participation in terms of: • Chapter 6 of the 2014 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations (as amended). • Public Participation Guideline in terms of the NEMA EIA Regulations (DEA, 2017). • Directions Regarding Measures to Address, Prevent and Combat the Spread of Covid-19 Relating to National Environmental Management Permits and Licences (Government Notice Regulation 650, dated 5 June 2020). The purpose of the GN650 Directions issued on 05 June 2020 is to curtail the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and to alleviate, contain and minimise the effects of the national state of disaster, and in particular to provide directions to ensure fair licensing processes and public participation processes as required by environmental legislation, including NEMWA and the EIA Regulations, as applicable to this application. These Directions came into effect on 05 June 2020 and will apply during Alert Level 3. HALT/BELR/KING 543554_Assmang BA_PP Plan_Draft3_2020819 November 20 SRK Consulting Page 3 In terms of Regulation 4.4 of the GN650 Directions, the prescribed timeframes of any services and actions referred to in the Annexures (including a WML application) initiated after the date of publication of the Directions are extended or deemed to be extended by a period of 30 days, on condition that where a service or action can be concluded within a shorter timeframe, it may be concluded within such shorter timeframe and on condition that the relevant authority may determine that a specific action must be performed by a specific date. At all times it must be ensured that reasonable opportunity is provided for public participation and that all administrative actions are reasonable. While the COVID-19 pandemic is a unique circumstance, the specific circumstances in each case must be considered in order to determine what will be reasonable. If in the circumstances of a particular case alternative reasonable methods to give notice to potential I&APs are available, then the relevant competent authority can be approached for an agreement in this regard as provided for in Regulation 41(2)(e) of the EIA Regulations. This public participation plan aims to: • Ensure that all reasonable measures are taken to identify potential I&APs for purposes of conducting public participation on the application. • Ensure that, as far as is reasonably possible, taking into account the specific aspects of the application- (a) information containing all relevant facts in respect of the application is made available to potential I&APs. (b) participation by potential or registered I&APs has been facilitated in such a manner that all potential or registered I&APs are provided with a reasonable opportunity to comment on the application or proposed application. 4. Level of Public Participation The Public Participation Guideline in terms of the NEMA EIA Regulations (DEA, 2017) provides a table with guidance for deciding on the required level of public participation. The table has been utilised for the proposed project (refer to Table 4-1). Table 4-1: Level of public participation Scale of anticipated impacts: Response for the proposed project: Are the impacts of the project likely to extend beyond the No, eThekwini Metro only. boundaries of the local municipality? Are the impacts of the project likely to extend beyond the No, KwaZulu-Natal only.