DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Thursday
SOUTH Africa pledged on Wednesday to tighten mining safety laws as investigators probed deep inside a gold mine where 12 workers died in an underground explosion – the latest in a rash of mining disasters.
“We are taking a very hard look at this situation,” Chief Inspector of Mines May Hermanus said.
“We have had three disasters in the last three years and this suggests that we need to take a very hard look at current regulations,” she said.
The miners were killed on Tuesday when an explosion tore apart a development area some 850 metres underground at the Beatrix mine near Welkom, 280km southwest of Johannesburg.
The blast is suspected to have been caused by a buildup of methane gas – which is colourless and odourless – after an underground ventilator broke down. A preliminary report by mine inspectors is due in two weeks.
The accident came barely a year after a methane gas explosion at Beatrix claimed the lives of seven miners. In July 1999, a massive blast also blamed on methane gas killed 19 miners at the Mponeng mine.
The National Union of Mineworkers, the biggest mining union, blamed mine management for the accident, saying profits were being put ahead of safety.
“It is clear that the industry is not taking any lessons from these disasters. How many more mineworkers should die before anything is done?,” said union representative Moferefere Lekorotsoana.
Mineowner Gold Fields said recommendations made after last year’s accident at Beatrix had been implemented, including the use of advanced methane gas detectors.
“After last year’s explosion we invested in some of the most advanced methanometers available,” said Gold Fields’ divisional manager Dana Roets.
Methane is a highly flammable, colourless and odourless gas that cannot be detected by humans. The gas is lighter than air which can make it hard to detect in larger mine tunnels.
South Africa’s famed deep-level gold mines are among the most dangerous workplaces in the world, claiming tens of thousands of lives during the century in which they helped make the country Africa’s richest.
South Africa’s worst mining disaster was in 1986, when 177 workers were killed as a result of a polyurethane fire at a mine east of Johannesburg.
The industry’s safety record has improved in recent years due to better equipment and training. The number of miners killed fell to 285 last year from 533 deaths in 1995, while mining-related injuries dropped to 4_728 from 7_717.
But South Africa’s mines minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is pushing to bring the numbers down further.
“The safety performance of the mining industry has improved overall, but casualty rates associated with rockbursts, the number of accidents with machinery, and controls of flammable gas remains a cause for concern,” she told Parliament on Tuesday. – Reuters
ZA*NOW:
Gold Fields negligent, says union May 9, 2001
12 miners die in explosion May 9, 2001