Butterworth Section 102

The quarry footprint and land surrounding the quarry between Ketani Road, and the Gcuwa River is municipal commonage owned by the Mnquma Local Municipality. In 2006 rural land use included grazing and the establishment of a few informal residential dwellings. The town’s wastewater treatment works is located to the east of the quarry and a poorly managed soil waste refuse site developed to the south of the quarry. The Gcuwa River meanders around the western boundary of the quarry footprint and deflects eastwards around the southern limits of the previous waste site and the wastewater treatment works before deflecting southwards again en route to the coast. This drainage system, therefore, encloses the mining footprint, the previously used waste site, and wastewater treatment works between the drainage channel to the south and Kentani Road to the
north. Residual dolerite of the Drakensberg Group is mined at Butterworth Quarry, where the cooled dolerite formed massive, sub-horizontal sheets. The 2006 mining application proposed the winning of therock north and east of the then mining scar. Mining is undertaken in a benched open pit at elevations. The pit excavations are limited by the mine boundaries that stand in relation to the adjacent Gcuwa
River and to the north by the processing plant and office buildings. The current depth of the quarry is approximately 50 m from the immediate ground level. Rock breaking is done initially by drilling and blasting using crawler mounted rigs and emulsion type bulk explosives. Oversized boulders are placed aside in the pit and large boulders are broken with explosives utilizing secondary blasting. The broken rock is sorted and loaded onto articulated dump trucks that is hauled to the primary 5 crushing plant, where various products are further conveyed to secondary-, tertiary- and quaternary crushing and screening processes to result in the desired products.
Butterworth Quarry produces aggregates and road pavement layering products for the construction and building industry of mainly the Eastern Cape.
SECTION 102 APPLICATION
As mentioned earlier, the Right Holder applied for consent of the Minister to:
 align the mining documentation with the Section 11 approval,
 update the EMPR; and
 expand the mining footprint;
, in terms of Section 102 of the MPRDA, 2002.
Should the S102 application (including EA) be approved, the Right Holder intends to expand the mining footprint with 13.9402 ha within the GPS coordinates.
Eastern Cape Province, a portion of Erf RE/153 and Erf RE/725, approximately 3 km east of the CBD of Butterworth, Mnquma Local Municipality