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- West Wits Mining (WWI) is facing further legal challenges in relation to its Witwatersrand Basin Project in South Africa
- Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are seeking to overturn their prior dismissal by the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries
- LHR previously appealed the granting of environmental approval to Witwatersrand by SA’s Department of Mineral Resources & Energy
- The company says the latest application has no legal merit
- Shares are down 8.33 per cent to trade at 4.4 cents
West Wits Mining (WWI) is facing further legal challenges in relation to its Witwatersrand Basin Project in South Africa.
The company said Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) have lodged a further application seeking a review of the decision made by the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, which dismissed a previous appeal by LHR.
The former appeal sought to overturn the decision by the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE) to grant the project environmental approval.
In a statement today WWI said it believed the latest review application was simply an attempt to cause disruption and had no legal merit.
West Wits Non-Executive Director Hulme Scholes commented on the latest action.
“This review application lacks merit and appears to be a further attempt to use the legal process to disrupt and cause delay to a project that complies with the requirements of the environmental laws applicable to mining in South Africa, as evidenced by the outright dismissal by the Minister of the appeal lodged by LHR which preceded the review application,” he said.
“The review application is essentially premised on the same failed prior grounds of appeal raised by the LHR and must logically also fail.
“There will consequentially be no disruptions to the project.”
Meanwhile, early-stage earthworks and other activities at Witwatersrand are reportedly underway.
WWI is updating the scoping study’s financial parameters to incorporate details provided as part of a recent definitive feasibility study for the Qala Shallows stage of the project.
West Wits said this work was close to completion and would soon be released to provide more details on an early mining initiative, for which plans were being facilitated through recent underground inspections of available ore.
Further, the company said significant progress had been made in developing funding options for the project and said the appointment of mandated advisers to procure financing offers was imminent.
Shares were down 8.33 per cent to trade at 4.4 cents at 10:54 am AEST.
