Proposed establishment of additional waste rock storage at Tharisa Mine near Marikana, North West Province

Tharisa Minerals (Pty) Ltd (Tharisa) is an opencast mining operation that produces chrome and platinum group metals (PGM) concentrate. The opencast mine is located on the farms 342 JQ and Elandsdrift 467 JQ near the town of Marikana in the Bojanala District Municipality and Rustenburg Local Municipality within the North West Province. As part of its on-going mine planning Tharisa has identified the need for additional waste rock storage on site. In this regard, Tharisa is proposing:
the expansion of the existing and approved Far West WRD 1 by a footprint of 109 ha. The expanded area will be referred to as the West Above Ground (OG) WRD. Portions of the West OG WRD will be located on backfilled areas of the West Pit; and
the establishment of a waste rock dump (referred to as the East OG WRD) on backfilled portions of the East Pit. The proposed East OG WRD will cover an area of approximately 72 ha.