The number of miners dying in South African mines is totally unacceptable, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
Her statement came after five miners went missing in a rockfall at AngloGold Ashanti’s Tautona mine near Carletonville on Monday. The rockfall followed two seismic events of magnitude 1,9 and 2,3 on the Richter scale.
Two miners were rescued shortly after the incident. One suffered minor injuries while the second sustained back injuries and was in a stable condition in hospital.
”The minister is most concerned about these incidents and she will be going to the mine today to give support and get a briefing from mine management on the accident,” said her spokesperson Bontle Mafuna.
The incident is not the first to happen at Tautona mine this year. In January, three miners died and four others were injured, two seriously, in a rockfall in the same mine.
The fall was said to have been caused by a seismic event with a 2,4 magnitude, about 3km below the surface.
It is on this basis that Sonjica voiced her concern. ”Gold mines, which have reached a plateau, are the worst performers and have deteriorated by 18,5% from a fatality rate per million hours worked of 0,27 to 0,32.”
Sonjica said in recent months coal and other mines have also show no sign of improvement — regardless of goals set in 2003 to improve mine-related injuries by 20% a year.
By 4pm on Tuesday rescuers were still trying to locate the missing miners.
AngloGold Ashanti spokesperson Steve Lanahan said rescue workers and a medical team were on standby, both at the scene of incident and at the mine hospital. — Sapa