[miningmx.com] — COAL of Africa’s plans to build a 22.5km railway line from its Makhado project have angered the region’s game farmers.
The R300m-odd line forms part of CoAL’s strategy to transport coking coal from Makhado to ArcelorMittal SA’s furnaces in Vanderbijlpark.
Marietjie Eksteen, CoAL’s environmental consultant, said at a Johannesburg meeting for interested parties at the company’s head office on Thursday that the tracks, would cross nine farms, among them four game farms, Beeld reported on Friday.
She said 400 indigenous trees, several of them protected, would have to be removed, and that the company would apply for permits to do so.
Eksteen said furthermore that the company planned to erect a game fence on both sides of the track.
Owners of game farms in the area were upset by the plans, Beeld reported, saying a fence would have a negative effect on the migration patterns of game.
They also expressed concern that CoAL’s plans would impact negatively on their quality of life and the value of their land.
Farmers in the area would opposed CoAL’s development plans, and they anticipated that the issue would end up being settled in court, it was reported.
