It has come to WWF South Africa’s attention that Kropz, a mining company owned by African Rainbow Capital (ARC), is seeking permission to mine a phosphate deposit within the borders of the West Coast National Park.

WWF strongly opposes any attempts to open up mining in South Africa’s national parks. WWF will do anything in its power to preserve the long-term security of irreplaceable biodiversity assets within our national parks system, which at best represents a relatively small proportion of our total land surface area.

The mining company wrote to SANParks in September last year to open negotiations, and have now formally applied, on 14 March 2025, for a portion of phosphate-bearing land be excluded from the park to allow it to mine in the area. This is a rather audacious application seeking an unprecedented decision to allow mining inside a formally declared national park.

This move comes as legal action is already playing out over the company’s failure to implement earlier offset conditions imposed on it in 2015 to mitigate damage done through its opencast mine operation.

The land the company is now eyeing lies close to its existing operation at the Elandsfontein mine on the West Coast within the borders of the West Coast National Park.

Existing court application

On 14 March, WWF filed papers in the Cape High Court requesting that it set aside the decision by the Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to dismiss an appeal against the removal of offset conditions imposed on the opencast phosphate mine at Elandsfontein on the West Coast.

The mining company was first given permission to mine at Elandsfontein in 2015 but failed to implement the biodiversity offset conditions which were to have been implemented within the first year of operation. Several years later it negotiated with the Department of Mineral Resources to have these conditions removed. The way in which this was done is now subject to court action with WWF South Africa challenging the decision.

The stakes have now been raised with the same mining company now seeking to mine inside the national park with the promise of further land swaps.

A full list of the court papers submitted can be viewed here.