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Rehabilitation is a legal requirement in many pieces
of legislation, including the National Environmental
Management Act and the Minerals Resources and
Petroleum Development Act, 2002. Rehabilitation can
take the form of restoring the site post-
development to its original quality, or to an
alternative land use or ecological condition, with
the decision being influenced by the proposed final
sustainable land use. Rehabilitation may also be an
ongoing process, for example in heavy minerals sand
mining, where the tailings are re-vegetated as
mining progresses, both for environmental and for
erosion purposes.
The development of a rehabilitation programme
frequently requires in depth studies to determine
the nature of the eco-system and the best ways to
restore, or recreate it.
CES has prepared a number of rehabilitation
programmes and then participated in the
implementation of these rehabilitation programmes on
disturbed sites and for coastal dune mining
operations, with outstanding results. In many cases
these rehabilitation programs are still ongoing.
Expertise
CES has
had experience in a number of different areas of
rehabilitation:
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Dune Stabilisation and Coastal Management
In the 1980s personnel of CES were carrying
out research and advising on coastal
management and dune stabilisation programmes.
A pamphlet was produced on the wise
management of the coastal zone and methods
of dune stabilisation if development was to
occur in the sensitive areas.
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Advice has been given to various
Coastal Municipalities on
aspects such as establishment of foot paths
(Plettenberg Bag), erosion of foredunes and
dune stabilisation, in marina development
(Port Alfred), and developments in the Coega
harbour area.
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Dune Mining
Rehabilitation following dune mining follows
many of the basic principles of dune
stabilisation and management. CES have
become authorities in the advice of
rehabilitation after dune mining and have
published research papers in this field.
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Gold Mines, Slimes Dams and Sand Dumps
Fundamental basic research on the
rehabilitation of tailing dumps of the
Witwatersrand area were carried out in the
1970s and 1980s.
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West Coast Mining
CES has provided management plans on mining
along the arid West Coast in the Western
Cape Province and Namibia. An intensive
rehabilitation programme was carried out at
the SAMANCOR Chemfos Phosphate mine on
closure. This entailed a detailed
rehabilitation plan and the implementation
of rehabilitation of a site which ultimately
received the Institute of Landscape
Architects’ award in 2002 as the best
reclamation project and also the best
water-wise reclamation project. CES has
worked closely with Vula Environmental
Services on this and allied projects.
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Roadside rehabilitation
Rehabilitation expertise has been provided
for some important routes such as the
proposed N2 Toll Road in the sensitive
Pondoland Transkei area in 2002.
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Relocation
Where development has necessitated the
relocation of plants, CES has been involved
in projects involving experimental
relocation programmes and expensive
relocation studies, e.g. Coega Kop and Coega
Port development.
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CES Expertise
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