Two miners died at Marula Platinum Mine in Burgersfort, Limpopo, during a blast in one of the shafts, the mine said on Wednesday.
Marula Platinum Mine’s spokesperson Elsabe Meiring said the incident happened on Tuesday night and no other people were reported injured.
She said details regarding the deaths would be provided shortly.
This is the second incident where miners have died at the Burgersfort plant this year.
The mine is temporarily closed and inspectors have arrived for investigations.
South Africa’s mining industry, which records an average of 200 fatalities every year, is seeking to reduce death rates by at least 20% by 2013, the Chamber of Mines said last week at a conference on sustainable development in mining.
“To be world-class by 2013, an annual milestone of reducing fatality rates by at least 20% a year is needed,” the chamber’s chief executive, Zoli Diliza, said. “Mining is dangerous, but this is no excuse for harming people.”
About 3 200 miners were stuck more than a kilometre underground earlier this month at a mine south-west of Johannesburg for up to 30 hours, prompting President Thabo Mbeki to order a comprehensive safety review at all mines.
Twenty-three illegal miners were recently killed in a fire at a disused shaft in the central Free State.