Stolen minerals worth R15 million were found in a storage place in Johannesburg. The minerals were presumably stolen by members of a syndicate at the harbor in Richards Bay, after they had been mined by Richards Bay Minerals.
The minerals were recovered by a police task force, which was deployed to the Richards Bay area, following a series of incidents during which minerals were stolen.
According to the police, the syndicate’s modus operandi is to intercept minerals at the port and replace them with counterfeit minerals. The real minerals are then transported to warehouses in Johannesburg. Here it is repackaged to sell to foreign buyers.
“The police descended on the warehouse on Wednesday and found the minerals during a comprehensive search of the premises,” Brig. Athlenda Mathe, police spokesperson, said.
A case of theft is being investigated. The police are still looking for the owner of the warehouse.
Moreover, this is the second breakthrough that the team has made in relation to the theft of minerals. In March, more minerals worth R15 million, also from Richards Bay Minerals, were found with a truck driver near Richards Bay.
“The driver of a truck and the owner of a warehouse in Durban have since been arrested,” says Mathe.
The task force in Richards Bay is also investigating the assassination of a number of CEOs of mines in the area. “So far, 202 unlicensed weapons have been seized, 43 suspects have been arrested and 68 files have been opened. Our intelligence services are constantly working to put an end to these illegal activities in the mining sector,” said Gen. National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said.
