South Africa’s Department for Water and Sanitation announced that funding for a program to clean up toxic water contamination from abandoned mines in and around Johannesburg was recently secured between the Department and the National Treasury. The contamination, or acid-mine drainage, occurs from the flooding of abandoned mine shafts. As the water drains through the mines it is contaminated with toxic metals before returning to rivers and streams.

A proposed coal mine near the border of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, the oldest protected wilderness in Africa, may endanger the already at-risk rhino population. Rhino poaching in South Africa is on the rise, with 13 killed in 2007 and 1,004 killed last year, and critics fear that the 14,615 hectare coal mine will worsen the problem, in addition to displacing local communities and polluting the air and rivers. According to one community member, the mine would make it easier for poachers to enter the park and access the threatened species.

A British court has thrown out a case brought against Anglo American South Africa, a subdivision of the UK mining multinational, saying it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Over 2,000 miners filed suit against the company after contracting the lung disease silicosis, a disease with no known cure that causes shortness of breath, a persistent cough, and a high susceptibility to tuberculosis. Anglo American switched its headquarters from Johannesburg to London in 1999, but maintains around $15 billion worth of assets in its South African unit.

Africa is falling behind in getting necessary funds for renewable energy because development banks are not assuming the political risk of working there, United Nations officials said. Banks must provide more guarantees that investors' projects won't suffer due to political or legal changes in the continent's poorest countries, according to Mohamed El-Ashry, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation. "Public private partnerships are not working because of too much risk on the private investors," he said at the World Future Energy Summit.

The South African Cabinet is expected to give a directive on action in response to acid mine spillage from Gauteng. Unexpected flooding has raised the levels of the toxic water in the province's mines, overwhelming the pumps designed to remove hazardous water out from underground. Mine foreman Derrick Souden said that the pumping should be four times its current rate, and that gold in mines will shortly be unreachable when the pumps themselves become flooded.

South Africa will spend 1.2 billion rand to clean up the acidic water that threatens to spill out of gold mines near Johannesburg. The network of abandoned mines that surrounds and underlies Johannesburg stretches for miles, and the mix of chemicals filling the flooded tunnels will affect the country for years, according to a report released by the Department of Water Affairs. Water flooding the tunnels has reacted with billion-year-old rocks to produce heavy metals, sulfuric acid, and radiation.

A record number of rhinos were poached this year in South Africa, home to the greatest number of the animals, as rising demand in Asia for their horns led to increased killings of the threatened species. At least 443 rhinos have been killed in South Africa in 2011, up from 333 last year, the national park service and conservationists said.

South Africa will spend 1.2 billion rand to clean up the acidic water that threatens to spill out of gold mines near Johannesburg. The network of abandoned mines that surrounds and underlies Johannesburg stretches for miles, and the mix of chemicals filling the flooded tunnels will affect the country for years, according to a report released by the Department of Water Affairs. Water flooding the tunnels has reacted with billion-year-old rocks to produce heavy metals, sulfuric acid, and radiation.

The South African Cabinet is expected to give a directive on action in response to acid mine spillage from Gauteng. Unexpected flooding has raised the levels of the toxic water in the province's mines, overwhelming the pumps designed to remove hazardous water out from underground. Mine foreman Derrick Souden said that the pumping should be four times its current rate, and that gold in mines will shortly be unreachable when the pumps themselves become flooded.