Sibanye Stillwater says four mine workers are now confirmed dead following Thursday’s seismic event at its Driefontein mine in Carletonville far west of Gauteng.
It says of the 13 workers who were trapped underground following a rock fall, ten were rescued, six of which are in hospital.
Three other workers remain trapped underground and work is underway to bring them to surface. The mine’s James Wellsted says operations at the shaft have been suspended.
“This is a very regrettable incident and we sent our sincere condolences to their families and friends. We will investigate what we could have done differently and that will be investigated with the Department of Mineral Resources.”
Five miners have been rescued following a series of seismic events at the mine on Thursday. Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) president Joseph Mathunjwa has criticised the mining company for not evacuating miners out of the Masakhane shaft immediately after the first seismic event which resulted in the rockfall.
Mathunjwa says it’s clear the mine management is putting profit before workers’ safety…
“The management is still forcing workers to go underground in other shafts. I spoke to the CEO of the mine to say that you are exposing workers to another danger. Because all the proto teams around Carletonville are at Masakhane, if there’s another accident due to allowing workers to go underground in the next shaft, who’s going to go and assist them?”
James Wellsted from Sibanye Stillwater has dismissed accusations by mine workers unions that they putting profit before workers’ safety…
“Gold mines, particularly on the Westrand are quite deep. We have seismic events regularly in those mines. We have safety, support, and standards that generally are able to cater for those seismic events. So we wouldn’t be able to mine if we had to evacuate the mines after every seismic event.”
Click below for a report on the initial incident:
