A shaft at Anglo Platinum’s second-biggest mine remained shut a week after a worker died in an accident, and the miner said it was in talks with authorities over its resumption.
Angloplat, the world’s largest producer of platinum used mainly to make autocatalysts to reduce car emissions, said blasting and mining work at the number one shaft at Amandelbult was halted pending a green light from the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs.
”It has not resumed yet since last Monday. What is affected is one shaft, not the entire mine,” Simon Tebele, a spokesperson for Angloplat, a unit of global mining group Anglo American, told Reuters.
A meeting would be held with DME officials on Tuesday afternoon regarding the shaft’s re-opening, he added.
Tebele said the output lost at the shaft would be estimated once the repairs were completed.
Amandelbult produced 195 200 ounces in the half year to June, after it lost 91 100 ounces owing to flooding at the mine.
South Africa’s mines’ sector recorded 85 mine deaths by June this year after a jump to 221 mine deaths last year from 200 in 2006, prompting a strike by mineworkers, a national safety audit of mines and a review of the country’s mine safety laws.
The DME has also resorted to closing down operations for investigations and repairs every time a worker dies at a mine. – Reuters