Four miners have died in an infrastructue-related incident at Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu mine near Carletonville in Gauteng, the gold producer announced today.
Harmony Gold said the incident occurred on Saturday, and it has since informed all relevant authorities and the families of the deceased.
Harmony chief executive Peter Steenkamp said the families and relevant authorities were immediately informed and the affected area has been closed, pending an in-loco investigation.
Steenkamp said they were deeply saddened by this incident and that their priority now was to support the families of the deceased.
“At Harmony, we view our employees as part of the larger family. Our priority is now to support the families of the deceased and everyone affected by this tragedy,” Steenkamp said.
This incident will be a blight on an unblemished record of no fatalities related to falls of fround in gold and platinum group metals (PGM) mines in the first quarter of 2022, which is a historic first for the South African mining industry.
It will also being to the spotlight the issues of safety in South Africa’s deep-level gold mines as investors gather at the Africa Mining Investment Indaba which kicked off today in Cape Town after a 2-year hiatus.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers has called on authorities to speedily investigate the incident.
NUM general secretary William Mabapa said the NUM was calling on the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to enforce the laws and ensure that companies take full responsibilities for such incidents.
“We cannot continue with the same triggers of incidents responsible for injuries and fatalities in the mining industry,” Mabapa said.
“South Africa is capable of developing technology that can foretell the fall of ground, seismic events which are most notorious for mining disasters. If we care about human life, the expenses or cost towards procuring such advanced technology should not matter much.”
