An elaborate illegal chrome-mining operation in rural Limpopo has shipped out chrome worth millions of rand‚ with the blessing of local headmen — and the government is powerless to stop the plunder‚ the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Mining experts estimate the illegal miners may already have extracted 360‚000 tons of chrome‚ with an estimated value of R500-million‚ it said.
The Sunday Times could not establish this week how many illegal operators are mining‚ or how much chrome is being taken.
But throughout the day‚ luxury cars with Limpopo‚ Mpumalanga‚ and Gauteng registration plates pulled in and out of the mines. Some trucks had plates from Mozambique.
A copy of a cash flow statement belonging to one of the operators showed his company had made R1.5-million in two weeks‚ having moved 7‚000 metric tons of chrome.
Millions 'stolen' in illegal chrome rush
An elaborate illegal chrome-mining operation in rural Limpopo has shipped out chrome worth millions of rand‚ with the blessing of local headmen — and the government is powerless to stop the plunder‚ the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Mining experts estimate the illegal miners may already have extracted 360‚000 tons of chrome‚ with an estimated value of R500-million‚ it said.
The Sunday Times could not establish this week how many illegal operators are mining‚ or how much chrome is being taken.
But throughout the day‚ luxury cars with Limpopo‚ Mpumalanga‚ and Gauteng registration plates pulled in and out of the mines. Some trucks had plates from Mozambique.
A copy of a cash flow statement belonging to one of the operators showed his company had made R1.5-million in two weeks‚ having moved 7‚000 metric tons of chrome.
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