By Musa Mdluli

MALOLOTJA:Michael Lee Enterprises, a company owned by Taiwan investor Michael Lee that was granted a mining license by King Mswati allegedly violated global climate change mitigation regulations and policies by engaging in an alleged illegal mining without an Environmental Assessment License.

The company allegedly engaged in the mining of a Green Chert mineral but, Gcina Dladla, the Executive Director of the Eswatini Environmental Authority(EEA) clarified that, Michael Lee Enterprises was awarded a Prospective License that allowed it to mine, identify the mineral and test the market.

“What happened is; they first used a Prospecting License, this is a license that allowed them to search for the mineral and temporarily do the mining to test the market before going on full scale mining. They wanted to mine five thousand(5000) tones but we suggested that, with the Prospecting License, they must at least mine two thousand(2000) tones. So if you can verify with the other Mines, most of them started with the Prospecting License before the Environmental Assessment, that then authorizes the full scale mining”, said the Environmental Authority Executive Director.

Reached for comments earlier this week, Michael Lee, the Director of Michael Lee Enterprises clarified that, the environmental assessment was ongoing.

“We are currently doing site maintenance and conducting an environmental program. We are not mining at this stage; many people are giving false information for what reason we don't know”, said the Director of Michael Lee Enterprises Eswatini.

It has been disclosed that, the environmental impact of mining can occur at local,regional, and global scales through direct and indirect mining practices. 

This might include erosion,sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. 

The Malolotja mining without an environmental impact assessment that will identify mitigating measures,might also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change and this, might affect other countries thus making the project of international interest.