How a Proposed Strip Mine Brought Conflict to South Africa’s Wild Coast

Identified the sand dunes that extend along the coast of eastern Pondoland and up to two kilometers inland as among the world’s 10 richest reserves of ilmenite, the ore that contains the metal titanium. MRC’s South African subsidiary Transworld Energy and Minerals (TEM), with a local partner, the Xolobeni Empowerment Company (Xolco), has applied for mining rights. But, far from embracing this project as a potential economic boon, many of the residents of the five villages adjacent to the dunes reject it. They say their world would be destroyed by mining. Coordinated by the Amadiba Crisis Committee set up by Rhadebe, Mbuthuma, and community elders a decade ago, and backed by South African human rights lawyers, these villagers have taken on Caruso and asserted their rights under customary law to veto any mining plan