While government is committed to finding a reasonable solution to regulate the artisanal mining sector, in South Africa this will only apply to surface projects, and not to those undertaken in underground areas by the many illegal miners referred to as zama-zamas, Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Godfrey Oliphant said on Friday. “There is no ways that we, as the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), can in good conscience grant permits to artisanal miners for deep-level mines, that in most cases are being accessed using old, abandoned shaft infrastructure, which are unsafe. We would essentially be sending people to their deaths.”
