Billionaire-Backed Kropz’s National Park Mine Plan Blocked

(Bloomberg) — South African National Parks has blocked a bid by a company controlled by billionaire Patrice Motsepe to tap South Africa’s second-biggest phosphate deposit in one of the nation’s most important wetlands.

Kropz Plc, which is 90% held by Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments Ltd., applied last month to extract the raw material used in making fertilizer from a section of the West Coast National Park. 

Kropz “approached us to explore the possibility of de-proclamation of a portion of land that is part of the West Coast National Park,” JP Louw, spokesman for the organization better known as SANParks, said by text message. “SANParks cannot allow any mining activities within a declared national park, as this is prohibited,” he added, saying Kropz has been informed of the decision. 

The application intensified a dispute between the company and conservation activists who have opposed development of the Elandsfontein mine adjacent to the park for more than a decade. Earlier this week the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, which is already in a legal dispute with Kropz over the mine, said it objected to the application. 

Kropz and African Rainbow didn’t immediately respond to queries.

In an April 23 statement Kropz said it had offered SANParks a parcel of land adjacent to the park with “equal or greater conservation value than the current portion under consideration” as compensation for the land it wants to mine.

Environmentalists have taken issue with the mine they say will endanger the Langebaan Lagoon, which lies 61 miles (98 kilometers) north of Cape Town, and the associated aquifer. Those disputes, and technical issues, have delayed the start of operations since the company acquired the deposit in 2010.

The West Coast National Park is home to 250 bird species, more than a quarter of the total found in South Africa, including flamingos and sandpipers. It’s also the site of an annual blooming of wildflower fields and fossil human footprints dating back 117,000 years.

Sign up here for the twice-weekly Next Africa newsletter

(Updates with Kropz statement in third last paragraph)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com