View noticesFarmers push back as lithium mining expands into South Africa's sugar belt
Lithium mining is becoming central to South Africa’s plans to benefit from the global shift to green energy and revive its economy, but thousands of farmers fear open-pit mines will destroy productive land and threaten rural livelihoods.
On the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, where one lithium mine is already operating, more than a dozen prospecting licences have been granted since 2023 and some farming communities are relocating, Reuters reports.
The South Coast Guardians Association (SCGA) says as many as 30,000 jobs in farming, labour and services could be at risk in the sugar-producing and tourism region.
Mines department data shows that lithium prospecting licences cover about 73,000 hectares – slightly larger than Pretoria – across 117 farms and some beaches. The existing mine occupies 150 hectares of pits and 180 hectares of waste dumps, with plans to expand across a further 6,000 hectares.
SCGA general manager Heather McLoed warned that converting all the prospecting licences into mining rights would have serious consequences for small-scale farmers, their communities and the sugar mill that processes their harvest.
The mill crushes two million tonnes of sugar cane a year from 2,000 small-scale and 600 commercial growers.
South Africa has placed critical minerals at the centre of its economic revival plans as the climate crisis and disrupted oil shipments linked to the US-Iran war drive investment in clean energy.
President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament in February that the country holds R40 trillion (about $2.39 trillion) in critical minerals, describing the sector as a “sunrise industry” capable of creating jobs and strengthening the industrial base.
In Magog, a hillside village in eastern KwaZulu-Natal and the largest of the country’s three lithium hotspots, 62-year-old farmer Albert Mthembu said blasting from nearby mining operations had caused cracks in his brick home. He has also received medical treatment twice for lung problems and now believes he may have to leave the home where he has lived since childhood.
Three villagers said a friend of Mthembu’s had already left after workers demolished his house during the mine’s expansion. Seven other homes in the area were visibly dismantled, while 11 farmers interviewed by Reuters raised similar concerns.
Mthembu said the company had offered relocated villagers replacement land that was remote and less suitable for farming. SA Lithium director Ian Harbottle said 150 farmers had been relocated voluntarily, and that the main challenge was moving people quickly enough given how much better off they were as a result.
Harbottle acknowledged the mine’s physical footprint and waste dumps but said it complied with anti-pollution requirements and had created more than 1,000 jobs. He also rejected concerns that the expansion would permanently damage water and soil, saying none of the mine’s water reaches rivers and that it is instead sent to dams for processing or dust suppression.
The existing mine remains small compared with the area under prospecting, where farmers produce a combined one million tonnes of sugar cane and macadamia nuts each year. That wider prospecting drive is causing greater concern among local communities than the current operation.
Although clean energy generally requires less material extraction than fossil fuels, mining’s impact on land remains contentious worldwide. In South Africa, farmers and activists say the transition to clean energy should not come at the cost of food production and established rural communities.
“The future of farming here is gone,” said Joe Nkala, 51, a cane-growing consultant to small farmers, standing on a hilltop with sugar farms on one side and a mining scar on the other.
“My kids will have to find a new life.”
SOURCE: Tim Cocks, Reuters.
CAPTION: The Highbury lithium mine near Umzumbe on the KZN South Coast.
PHOTO CREDIT: Supplied