Critical Update on the Proposed MMSEZ-Kinetic Resources Ferrochrome Smelter—Our Formal Objections Submitted
On Thursday, 14 August 2025, Living Limpopo, the Wits University Centre for Applied Legal Studies and The Herd Nature Reserve, supported by All Rise Attorneys for Environmental and Climate Justice, submitted comprehensive formal comments and objections on the draft Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the planned ferrochrome/ferroalloys smelter in the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ).
Image of a ‘typical’ ferrochrome smelter provided in the Scoping Report for the MMSEZ Kinetic Ferrochrome Smelter Project; Public Meeting, 13 September 2024
The road to Environmental Authorisation: In September 2024, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for several industrial projects at the MMSEZ Energy-Metallurgical Zone in Limpopo Province was launched. Despite heavy criticism, the Scoping Report has been approved, and in June 2025, the Draft EIA Report (EIAR) was released for public comment. You can read the background here
A Herculean Effort Under Unreasonable Circumstances
Despite being denied proper advance notice and afforded an unreasonably short period to review a vast collection of highly technical documents, All Rise Attorneys submitted a rigorous, well-supported objection to the ferrochrome smelter project at the MMSEZ Energy-Metallurgical Zone on behalf of Living Limpopo, CALS and The Herd Reserve. This preserves our right to challenge every step of the process going forward.
What's Wrong with the EIA?
Our submission details deep technical and legal flaws in the dEIAR spanning:
Climate impact
Air quality and human health (including the serious risk of carcinogenic exposures)
Water security (highlighting severe risks to a sole aquifer)
Energy intensity and feasibility
Biodiversity loss in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve
Soil and land capability
Socio-economic impacts
Cumulative environmental impacts
Methodological weaknesses and the inadequate consideration of alternatives
The dEIAR itself confirms the project would bring serious and widespread harm:
Severe water stress and pollution risk
Significant air quality degradation and human health threats
Irreversible biodiversity loss
High greenhouse gas emissions
Economic feasibility (‘stranded asset’) concerns tied to unreliable power supply and weak market justification
Socio-economic calculus skewed in favour of Chinese controlling interests while South Africa bears the costs
Extremely poor jobs creation benefits (241 direct employment opportunities)
Critical Conflicts of Interest and Procedural Irregularities
The application comes from Kinetic Resources and its subsidiary Kinetic Mining (Pty) Ltd—the same Chinese-controlled parent company advancing the nearby MC Mining Makhado Colliery without valid environmental authorisation.
Serious concerns remain about the independence of the approvals process:
The “competent authority” is the Limpopo Province Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET)—which ultimately oversees, and stands to benefit from, the development of the MMSEZ through its own agencies.
On 19 May, All Rise formally requested that the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment revoke LEDET’s authority in this matter due to this conflict. As of now, no such action has been taken and the process remains in the hands of a conflicted department.
Throughout the EIA, procedural fairness has been severely compromised:
Our December 2024 Scoping Report comments were ignored; we received no notification of its approval.
Interested and affected parties (I&APs) received no direct notice of the dEIAR’s release. Most only learned of it by chance via a Limpopo Mirror newspaper notice.
Document access was inadequate.
Timeframe extension requests—crucial due to notification failures—were outright denied.
The public participation process has been little more than a formality: at the 17 July Makhado public meeting, substantive questions raised by the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve and Living Limpopo went unanswered.
Timeline of Key Events
13 Sep 2024: EIA process officially launched (scoping report released)
9 Dec 2024: Initial Scoping Report objections submitted
Dec 2024–June 2025: Zero response on Scoping Report; queries ignored
19 May 2025: Letter served on Minister DFFE about jurisdictional conflict
27 Jun 2025: dEIAR quietly noticed in Limpopo Mirror
14 Jul 2025: dEIAR received, after request
16–17 Jul 2025: Public meetings—substantive concerns ignored
14 Aug 2025: Formal living Limpopo objections filed via All Rise
Next Steps—Your Involvement Needed
We continue to pursue every avenue to ensure the law is upheld:
We invite you to review the documents and flag further procedural defects or environmental and community impacts for possible supplementary submissions.
A major, in-depth health impact analysis covering the cumulative MMSEZ mining/smelter complex is nearing completion—expected to shift the debate on the project’s true economic and social costs.
We sincerely thank everyone contributing to this collective effort. Stay tuned for further updates—our rights, our environment, and our communities are all at stake.
For those wanting to access the dEIAR or our formal comments, visit:
www.gudaniconsulting.co.za/public/docs
