Four miners died in separate, unrelated incidents at Gold Fields mines 10km from each other in Westonaria on Wednesday afternoon.
Three of the mine workers were killed when they were hit by a skip loaded with spillage rock in the Four Shaft complex of Kloof Gold Mine, near Westonaria, said Gold Fields spokesperson Andrew Davidson.
The accident occurred 3 650m underground at the bottom of the four sub-vertical shaft on Wednesday afternoon.
Davidson said the three had been tasked with loading the skip before it was hoisted 50m up an incline to 46 level, from where it was to be lifted to the surface.
However, the rope broke and the skip slipped back down the incline, hitting the three.
Their deaths brought to 11 the number of fatalities at the Kloof mine since the start of the year, said Davidson.
He said the principal inspector of mines and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) representatives had gone underground to inspect the site of the accident.
The accident would be the subject of a full investigation.
Proto-teams and other mine employees had recovered the miners’ bodies and brought them to surface by mid-afternoon.
Their names were being withheld until their next of kin had been informed, said Davidson.
Gold Fields staff were still trying to come to terms with the tragic deaths when they learned of the death of a fourth miner, at the South Deep Twin Shafts complex, 10km away, he said.
The accident was ”totally unrelated” to the incident at Kloof, he said.
It was a rock drill operator who lost his life at South Deep in a fall of ground while he was working on a stope 2 700m below the surface, said Davidson.
The ground fall was caused by gravity and not by a seismic event.
It was the third fatality at the mine — considered to be one of the safest in the country — in the past year, he said.
Davidson said there were 29 deaths recorded at Gold Fields mines in the financial year to the end of June.
”One fatality for us is one too many,” he said, expressing the company’s deep sadness at the deaths. ”Safety remains our number one priority.”
Gold Fields would continue in its efforts to ensure ”people are able to go home after work safe and well”.
Information on both incidents had been conveyed to the NUM and the Department of Minerals and Energy.
The deaths come just days after the unrecognisable bodies of 23 illegal miners were recovered from a disused shaft of the St Helena Mine, in Welkom, after a fire.
A week ago, 3 200 mineworkers spent more than a day trapped underground in the Elandsrand mine near Carletonville after a falling pipe column cut the power to the lift used to hoist them to the surface.
At the time, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica promised a ”tightening up” of health and safety legislation to prevent mining accidents. There was ”room for improvement”, she said.
Failure to reduce the fatalities and risks involved in mining was not an option, Sonjica said, while addressing the Fifth Mine Health and Safety Council Biennial Summit at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park later in the week.
While mining was a dangerous exercise, ”we should move to reduce risks and should not take the defeatist approach”, she said. — Sapa