South Africa’s Northam Platinum said on Wednesday it expected to lose about 1 000 ounces per day of output after shutting its underground mine early on Tuesday when a worker was killed in a rockfall.
Marion Brower, a spokesperson for the company, told Reuters the Northam mine in Limpopo was shut after the fatality around 1,6km below the surface.
The mine — the world’s deepest platinum mine — produces about 325 000 PGM ounces of platinum a year, she said.
”The worker was killed in a rockfall early on Tuesday and the mine has been shut. It was shut after the accident,” Brower said.
”We estimate a loss of 1 000 PGMs a day,” she added.
Shares in the company were down 2,3% at R49,25 by 10.21am GMT, faring worse than its bigger platinum rivals, and the all-share index, which fell 0,69%.
A Department of Minerals and Energy inspector visited the mine on Tuesday, to assess the cause of the accident, she added.
The company said in a statement it had been ordered by the Inspector of Mines temporarily to stop underground operations.
The company did not say when the mine would reopen.
Northam Platinum, which had three fatalities in the last financial year to end-June, is owned by South African black-owned mining firm Mvelaphanda Resources.
The death brings to five the number of mineworkers killed in South Africa, the world’s biggest platinum and gold producer, in the past one week.
Four workers were killed last Wednesday at two of gold producer Gold Fields’ mines, a week after 3 200 workers were trapped 2,2km underground for more than 24-hours at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine after a shaft accident.
A spate of recent accidents has prompted President Thabo Mbeki to order an audit to improve mine safety.
Gold Fields will shut its Kloof mine in South Africa on Thursday to allow the workers to mourn the deaths of three colleagues at the mine, the National Union of Mineworkers said.
The union has said it is in the process of applying for permission from authorities for a one-day strike to protest against the deaths at the country’s mines — some of which are the deepest in the world — and focus company’s on the issue of safety. – Reuters