PHOZI VILLAGE, South Africa — On a grassy mountainside overlooking the Indian Ocean on South Africa’s Eastern Cape coast, dozens of cattle graze freely. For generations, families in the small rural villages of Tyolomnqa, Phozi, and Qaga, about 30 miles from the nearest city, KuGompo, have relied on these communal lands for food, income, healing and spiritual connection.
Residents of the village say a planned open-cast mine complex spread over thousands of hectares of communal land threatens their way of life.
The Tyolomnqa Heavy Mineral Sands Project, proposed by Johannesburg-based Vendicom Minerals Beneficiation Group, is targeting zircon, rutile, ilmenite and leucoxene — heavy mineral ores used in products ranging from ceramic tiles and paint pigments to titanium for aircraft, medical implants and some renewable energy technologies.
Though, its initial application to prospect in the area was rejected by the government on procedural grounds, communications from a consultancy hired by Vendicom to conduct the environmental and social impact assessment show that the company is still keen to mine in the region. The area Vendicom is eyeing is spread across up to 18 miles (29 kilometers) of communal grazing land stretching across the Tyolomnqa, Keiskamma and Kiwane estuaries.
The three rivers, all of whose names are derived from Indigenous words, flow through rolling grasslands before reaching estuaries fringed by dunes and sandy beaches. The word Keiskamma comes from the Khoekhoe language and is commonly translated as “place of sweet waters.” For generations, rural isiXhosa communities have relied on these connected ecosystems for fishing, small-scale farming, livestock grazing and other natural resources.
A background information document initially published by the company, but then later removed from the internet, identified potential impacts including water pollution from mine waste, facilities for storing dangerous goods, and the clearing of indigenous vegetation in a Critical Biodiversity Area. The document was not an environmental impact assessment (EIA), however. The full assessment of environmental impacts and proposed mitigation measures will only come in the EIA, which will be released for public comment before authorities decide whether the mine can proceed.
The proposed mine lies less than a kilometer (0.62 miles) from the Tyolomnqa Nature Reserve and alongside the Tyolomnqa Estuary, a protected Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area.
A 2025 government management plan for the estuary described it as one of South Africa’s most important coastal ecosystems, home to two mangrove forests. It flagged the presence of the Kiwani porcelain flower (Acmadenia kiwanensis), a critically endangered shrub found only between the Keiskamma and Tyolomnqa rivers, and drew attention to the 34 fish species, including the endangered white steenbras (Lithognathus lithognathus) and 191 bird species, found here. The area also features archaeological sites that include Stone Age artifacts, Iron Age settlement remains, and possibly unmarked graves.
The residents of the low-income villages of Phozi, Tsaba and Sandile catch around 40 tonnes (88,000 pounds) of fish annually in the Tyolomnqa River, according to the government document.
Community leaders said the estuary is in good condition, because they’ve cared for it and the surrounding landscape for generations. They worry if the mine goes ahead, the dust, blasting, truck traffic and changes to water flows could affect the dunes, forests, river and shoreline that support wildlife, fishing, tourism and local livelihoods.
They told Mongabay they first learned about the proposed mine when a notice appeared in the Daily Dispatch on March 24, 2026, announcing that Vendicom Minerals Beneficiation Group had applied to prospect in the area. The announcement prompted the residents to form a coalition of village committees (a unit of local self-governance), fishing cooperatives and seaweed harvesters to oppose the project.
Villagers told Mongabay that mining companies generally misrepresent communal land as vacant or underutilized. On a June morning, a reporter with Mongabay accompanied Phozi village committee members on a five-hour walk over their hills as they explained all the ways they use their land.
“You can see for yourself that we use this entire piece of land in a well-organized and sustainable way. There is not even one piece that we are not using,” Phozi committee member Boneka Mema told Mongabay.
At the foot of the hills, villagers run a two-acre community mine to extract sand that is used for construction. The committee launched the mine in 2025, selling sand to nearby households and builders and reinvesting some of the profits in a school playground and the village’s first rugby field.
Drawing a distinction to the proposed heavy mineral sands project, Mema said, “we only dig up a small place and then later level that area and plant grass and indigenous plants.”
“We restore our land as we go, because it is our land, and we are proud of it,” she said.
Further up the hill, women can be seen plucking flowers, fruit and leaves from indigenous shrubs that blanket the landscape. Phozi village committee member Primrose Ndongeni told Mongabay the plants are used to make traditional medicine based on knowledge passed down through generations.
She also points to dozens of cattle grazing freely across the hills. “Those 16 there are mine. I’m a widow with four children. I don’t have money, so I support my family by selling organic [beef]. When I don’t have money for school fees, I just sell a cow,” she said.
Every morning, over a 1,000 cattle amble out of their kraals (traditional cattle enclosures placed near living quarters) to graze the communal land, according to the village committee.
“They just come to these hills by themselves, and in the evening, my brother and other men bring them home. We don’t want mining, because the shape of the land will change and there will be nowhere for our livestock to feed,” Ndongeni told Mongabay.
