Miner Killed As Safety Boycott Starts.

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Miner Killed As Safety Boycott Starts.

August 28th, 2008

A worker has died at platinum-group metals (PGMs) producer Impala Platinum’s (Implats’) No 10 shaft on Tuesday night after a fall-of-ground incident, the company confirmed on Wednesday. Production at the shaft still was ongoing.

Implats spokesperson Alice Lourens explained that the worker was a development rock drill operator and the incident happened when the ground on which the worker was standing gave way.The company had stopped on-rig development while the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) and Implats were conducting an investigation.

Twelve workers were killed in Impala’s mines during the year.

Meanwhile, workers at AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona mine, in Carletonville, would, on Thursday, attend a memorial service for a colleague who died in a fall-of-ground incident on August 15.

A section of the shaft pillar area where the worker had died still remained closed while the company was making sure that it was safe for work to continue.Two sections of the mine were closed on August 15 - the shaft pillar area where the fatality had occurred, and another where seismic activity was experienced. The second area had already been reopened.

Production at AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng mine, again in the Carletonville area, had also been disrupted on August 21, when nearly 16 000 workers had downed tools to observe a day of mourning for a colleague who had died in a tramming accident the week before.

Gold producer DRDGold also confirmed that it had been informed by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that employees at its Blyvooruitzicht mine, south of Carletonville, intended on observing a day of mourning on Thursday after a colleague died in a fall-of-ground incident last week.

Meanwhile, PGMs miner Eastplats had confirmed that three people had been seriously injured in an underground vehicle accident at the Crocodile River mine on Tuesday night. A vehcile carrying 11 people had collided with a utility vehicle.

“The people carrier was transporting employees to work in the no 1 decline shaft at Zandfontein. Three people have been hospitalised with serious injuries as a result.” The company reported.

Meanwhile, the NUM also expressed concern over the death of a 12-year-old boy who had drowned at a rehabilitated slimes dam in Phomolong, near Welkom.

Source: MiningWeekly.com
Published on 27th August 2008