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South Africa is investigating a potential disaster that lies beneath its richest city: Illegal gold miners are digging and blasting 30 centimeters of pipelines under some of Johannesburg's most vital infrastructure, increasing the risk of explosions.
The government moved to action after the Sunday Times newspaper announcement of the activity likely to create a hell.
Some illegal miners are digging just below the FNB stadium, with a capacity of 94,000, while others are operating under major highways such as the M1 and M2 motorways, according to the newspaper, citing Conel Mackay, chief of the Johannesburg Infrastructure Protection Unit.
Johannesburg is at the center of the Witwatersrand Basin, a source of one third of the gold produced in the world.
Most of its former mining sites are shallow and illegal mining activities are conducted tens of meters from the surface. What makes the situation even more risky is that illegal operators have very little knowledge about underground rock formations, said Raymond Durrheim, a geoscience professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.
"The mines around Johannesburg are quite shallow and illegal miners take no precautions, so there is a risk of collapse and affect the surface," Durrheim said. "Activities in the area are a danger to people."
The Mineral Resources Department asked the Geoscience Council to badess whether there was long-term damage to critical infrastructure, he said in a statement.
According to Transnet, a breach in the pipelines would result in a "disaster, causing significant damage to infrastructure". The state of the ports and the pipeline operator do not know how illegal miners are close to its infrastructure, the newspaper reported.
Sasol, which imports gas from Mozambique to South Africa, transports highly flammable gases rich in methane.
Companies that have abandoned the sites decades ago after the commercial ore depletion may have sealed some mine openings, but illegal operators still have the opportunity to access and maintain them. Order is difficult because of the extent of the area of extraction, said Durrheim.
"These things could be open again, because it is difficult for companies to achieve something absolutely impenetrable," he said.
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