Just compensation in mining: an asset-based livelihoods approach to calculating loss and damage and rehabilitation
This research explores contemporary and imminent axes of justice and injustice contributed by energy transition processes, new strategic minerals mining, and Net Zero pathways, alongside legacy mining of fossil fuels, which remain central to global energy systems. There is currently little systematically known about the changing political economy of development caused by the Net Zero paradigm and its structural effects on the Global South, but there is evidence that new mining extractivism is reproducing historical patterns of displacement and dispossession, risking the consignment of the ‘just transition’ concept to a luxury for the Global North. Whether it is coal or new strategic minerals, affects on mine-affected communities remain under-researched, particularly in respect to the loss and damage they suffer because of mines opening, and the lack of decommissioning justice they face as they close.
Aims
This research pioneers a novel framework of loss and damage calculation which treats losses not as one-off 'willing buyer- willing-seller' events, but as a loss of an asset with derivative income streams that have a temporal frame into the future. With All Rise Attorneys, and the use of their surveys of 115 mine-affected households, we developed an asset-based livelihoods approach to loss and damage calculation.
Methods
We used secondary analysis of 115 households surveys, combined with cumulative quantitative modelling of herd growth and agricultural product projections.
Summary of Findings
Drawing on surveys of 115 directly affected households of the Somkhele Coal Mine, an anthracite operation run by Tendele Coal Mining (Pty) Ltd, the work calculates immediate losses of R80,704,727 between 2007 and 2018, against total compensation recorded by households from the mine of R3,648,301. Only 25 households, 22 per cent of those surveyed, reported receiving any compensation at all. When lost future income from maize and livestock and is projected to 2028 and 2038 respectively, the losses rise to over R157 million and the compensation paid falls to 2.3 per cent of the total.
You can read the report in full published in both isiZulu and English.
Impact
The impact of the project will be to draw further attention to the disregard of rural communities in the current mining boom, of fossil fuels and strategic minerals. The authors call on the Government of the Republic of South Africa to engage with Tendele Coal Mining (Pty) Ltd. to ensure affected families are compensated, remedies implemented and rehabilitation carried out without further delay.
Partners
The project was requested by All Rise and financially supported by King’s College London under the Climate & Sustainability Seed Fund, PI Sarah Bracking, ethics registration number MRA-24/25-42910. Resources were also provided by the University of KwaZulu Natal. Dr Danford Chibvongodze was employed at the University of KwaZulu Natal within the the School of Social Science, Centre for Civil Society, under the supervision of its director Professor Shauna Mottiar. Mr Simo Dlamini contributed project administration. Dr Kristofer Chan (King’s College London) contributed cartographic expertise. Mr Mohammed Vawda (University of KwaZulu-Natal) contributed mathematical and modelling expertise. Bobby Peek of groundWork and Professor Patrick Bond of the University of Johannesburg acted as scientific advisors at the results workshop in January 2026. The afterword section on the social cost of carbon emissions is contributed by Professor Patrick Bond. Commissioner Philile Ntuli of the South African Human Rights Commission, has kindly contributed a foreword. We would like to sincerely thank all the original respondents from Somkhele.
Activities
Presentations
Presentation to the Somkhele community, 12th August 2026, with All Rise Attorneys.
Reports
A version of the report was launched in isiZulu on 12th August 2026:I
SINXEPHEZELO ESIFANELE: Ukubalwa kwempahla nezindlela zokuziphilisa ezilahlekile emiphakathini ethintekayo imayini, eSomkhele, KwaZulu-Natal.
Isifinyezo semiphumela yocwaningo somphakathi wakwa-Somkhele.
Kususelwa embikweni wocwaningo lukaDanford Chibvongodze noSarah Bracking, 2026.
Siyathokoza ukuba noKhomishana uPhilile Ntuli weKhomishini Yamalungelo Abantu baseNingizimu Afrika ethula lo mbiko. Usikhumbuza ukuthi izindleko zangempela zomsebenzi wezimayini azimayelana nemali noma umhlaba kuphela, kodwa futhi zimayelana nokulahlekelwa kwabantu amakhaya abo, amasiko, izindlela zokuphila, kanye nokuxhumana kwabo nomhlaba. Uthemba ukuthi lo mbiko uzosiza bonke abantu ukuthi basebenzisane ekuvikeleni amalungelo abantu, ekuhlonipheni imiphakathi, nasekuqinisekiseni ukuthi intuthuko iletha ukulunga, isithunzi kanye nekusasa elingcono kubo bonke.
Principal Investigator
Professor of Climate and Society