Rand Uranium on Monday said measures taken to curb illegal mining had resulted in the arrest of about 650 illegal miners over the last year.
Rand Uranium is 40% held by Harmony Gold Mining and 60% held by a consortium of private equity, including Pamodzi Resource Fund, First Reserve Corporation and AMCI Capital.
The company is currently under the spotlight for what unions have described as inhumane rules that prevent mine workers from taking food or liquids underground.
But Rand Uranium insists that the banning of food underground is essential to its strategy to rid the operations of illegal miners.
“Illegal mining remains a serious problem in the South African gold mining industry,” said the company in a statement, adding that illegal mining posed a risk to the safety of employees and the illegal miners themselves, undermined the sustainability of operations and threatened the livelihoods of employees and communities in mining areas.
“When Rand Uranium took over the Cooke operations in December 2008, a serious illegal miner problem existed. Since then, Rand Uranium has undertaken extensive measures to deal with this problem, resulting in the arrest of approximately 650 illegal miners over the last year,” Rand Uranium said.
It added that illegal mining also posed a risk to the mine’s employees.
“Shortly after the company took ownership of the Cooke underground mines at the end of 2008, one employee lost his life in an alleged encounter with illegal miners. Today, illegal mining remains evident at Cooke underground mines,” the company said.
It said over the recent Christmas break a number of areas were severely damaged by illegal mining activities and certain areas were rendered unsafe for our employees to enter.
“It has taken nearly two weeks to fix these areas. Acts of vandalism have also been experienced in January 2010. Security personnel have been deployed underground to protect certain high-risk areas,” the company said.
Measures taken by the company to combat the problem include a complete revamp of the access control system to the underground operations, culminating in the installation of a biometric access control system on all access points to shafts, costing in excess of R6-million.
The company has also stepped up security operations around underground operations at an additional cost of R200 000 a month.
It has also completely banned food being taken underground, and while this ban includes cold drinks, it does not include water.
“Illegal miners are known to spend months at a time underground, and illegal trading in food underground is the one essential resource that sustains their illicit activities. With the support of organised labour, a complete ban on food being taken underground was instituted in December 2008 as a means to cut the lifeline of illegal mining,” Rand Uranium said.
The company has made alternative provisions and offers employees a meal before or after underground shifts.
It says it has also taken measures to deal with employees with medical conditions, for which the food ban is a problem. This has included redeploying about 20 diabetic underground employees to jobs that do not require them to work underground.
“Bans on food being taken underground have proven very successful in combating illegal mining activity, as it is the one resource essential to sustain those illegal miners known to spend months at a time underground. When Rand Uranium first implemented the food ban, very large numbers of illegal miners were arrested attempting to leave the mine soon thereafter,” Rand Uranium said.
But the United Association of South Africa (UASA) last week warned of possible legal action against the company and potential strike action if it does not lift the ban.
Union members last week staged a sit-in.
“Rand Uranium has made excellent progress in ensuring the overall safety of our workforce. This includes combating the dangerous, and destructive, practise of illegal mining,” said Rand Uranium CEO John Munro.
“To date we have been very pleased with the support of organised labour. The food ban was introduced with the full support of all the unions,” Munro said. — I-Net Bridge