There are already 15 mines in the Greater Tubatse municipality in Burgersfort, which plans to become a fully-fledged city by at least 2016.

"Burgersfort is one of the fastest growing towns in the country and we expect it to become a city in the next 10 to 15 years," said Mayor Masana Motubatse.

She said more than R23 billion would be invested to developing the town into a fully-fledged city.

She said four of the 10 new mines would start operating late this year.

Another project, said Ms Motubatse, was the construction of a R2 billion smelter plant, which was expected to create at least 1 800 jobs.

She said that all these developments would add about 10 000 new jobs in a municipality that had a population of 250 000 people.

An economic empowerment office would also be established to promote black economic empowerment (BEE) companies, Ms Motubatse said.

She said the vision was only possible if there was enough water, however.

The municipality recently embarked on a R300 million plan to improve water supply for domestic and industrial use. This project will start at the end of this month.