As Alice in Wonderland might have said as she tumbled down  an – um – tin mine shaft.

If the Cape’s  wine community is naturally extremely concerned about African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (Pty) Limited’s application to prospect for various minerals on prime wineland on the Bottelary and Tygerberg Hills, it is also scratching its collective heads as to why it was made at all.

The Wonderland analogy continues with the adverts requesting notice of  affected or interested parties to register by 12th February; these  were placed in English media only, on 10th and 19th February, the latter after the deadline! In fact, most landowners discovered by chance about AEM’s intention  – one on Facebook, another in church.

The bottom line is that in no way – neither economically nor strategically – does the application make any sense.

AEM&FC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Energy Fund, which is controlled by the Department of Mineral Resources. It will be the Minister of that Department, Susan Shabangu, who, after studying the public participation process and environmental management plan, will decide whether or not to grant the mining licences. A clear case of a conflict of interests, or as someone put it, this is ‘putting the fox in charge of the hen house.’

The strange thing is that while the DMR looks intent on destroying areas with highly endangered vegetation, it was the national government who supported the establishment of this UNESCO biodiversity site!

At a meeting at Jordan wine farm Wednesday, independent geologist, Stephen Davey, explained why strategically this application doesn’t make sense. Over a hundred year period 778 tons of tin has been mined from the area where prospecting is planned, just 28 tons from the hills (now home to prime Stellenbosch vineyards), the rest from lower in the creek; this represents less than one per cent of tin found in the country; thus an uneconomic proposition. (The top part of the photo taken from Jordan and with Table Mountain in the background, is part of the area where the smaller amount of tin was mined; mid distance is the lower creek, where the majority came from.)

More telling was Davey’s advice that while the application was for tin, it didn’t include molybdenum or tungsten, two other minerals associated with tin. He considers the application for the rest of the minerals ‘a joke; for a start there are no lithium deposits in the Western Cape.’

Davey continued, ‘This begs the question what was the target selection criteria?’ He further warns that information on the actual prospecting process has yet to be given.

Economically, it makes even less sense. WOSA’s Su Birch initially pointed out that exports have risen from just 50 million litres in 1992 to just over 400 million litres last year, leaving wine the #1 export after cars and metals.

Employing over 275 000 people, the wine industry is one of few sectors to have increased the number of unskilled workers in the past four years. `For every R1 million invested in the wine industry 5.5 jobs are created, while the equivalent figure for mining is only 3.4.’ concluded Conningarth Economists in their macro-economic impact of the wine industry on the South African economy in December 2009. The figure for tourism, now very much allied to the wine industry, is 5.09 jobs for every R1 million invested.

But if anything distresses the farmers, it’s the thought of destroying the environment they’ve put so much effort into preserving. Robert Kopman from Cape Nature emphasised the Bottelary and Tygerberg Hills support the largest areas of renosterveld left;  between and 30 and 40 species ranging from vulnerable to critically endangered are found in these areas. All the farmers whose land is involved have and continue to clear alien vegetation;  eco-tourism in the form of hiking is a popular option on some farms. (The photo taken from Jordan shows Mooiplaas in the near distance, with Tygerberg in the far distance and the dark spots on top small patches of renosterveld.)

Biodviersity and Wine Initiative’s Inge Kotze stresses the importance that the corridor between vineyards and indigenous vegetation be kept open, this break between vineyards helps to control the movement of vineyard pests suh as mealy bug. 

As these small bites of information must indicate, this mining application has many and detrimental implications to hundreds of thousands of people – what I’ve outlined here is just a small part of the story.

Although the deadline to register as an interested party has passed,  it is still important that as many people as possible record their comments. The forms are available on the Jordan website. As Gary Jordan says: ‘Any reason for becoming an interested and affected person is valid, you don’t have to be a land owner to register and simple concerns like, ‘we don’t want to lose our favourite wines’, ‘it will lessen the cape wineland experience’, ‘we don’t want this spoiling our beautiful views’, ‘what about those who will lose their jobs?’, ‘what about the environment and the biodiversity?’, any reason you can think of will assist in this struggle.’