"Critical court showdown on mining and environment", 20 February 2017

A controversial Australian mining company’s allegedly illegal activities at its West Coast mine that resulted in massive environmental destruction is the subject of a legal battle starting in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Monday...The most obvious physical symbol of the dispute is a sea cliff directly in front of the Tormin mineral sands mine...Tormin is sited on rich concentrations of mineral sands such as zircon‚ ilmenite‚ rutile‚ magnetite and garnet. It is owned by Mineral Sands Resources (Pty) Ltd (MSR). MSR is in turn a subsidiary of Mineral Commodities Ltd that trades on the Australian Securities Exchange as MRC...National and provincial environmental authorities say that the collapse of the sea cliff was facilitated by the unauthorised and illegal re-positioning and operation of Tormin’s two primary beach concentrators...The allegations are denied by MSR‚ and the mining company has now brought a High Court review application...Because of the national significance of the application’s outcome‚ lawyers and environmentalists will be watching this case keenly. The observers include activist lawyers at the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER)...The CER was among those who submitted formal complaints about Tormin’s alleged environmental breaches‚ and it has also been vocal about the way in which the DMR has taken on – or not taken on – its new environmental responsibilities...