JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has confirmed that operations at Harmony Gold’s Doornkop mine will cease until the area has been declared safe for employees.
This followed a 2.4 seismic event on Tuesday, which triggered a fall-of-ground accident and subsequent fire some 1 733 m underground at the mine, west of Johannesburg.
Nine workers were rescued after seeking shelter in an underground mine refuge, while the bodies of eight other miners were later found after rescue teams searched the area.
Rescue teams continued their search on Thursday for a ninth worker, who remained unaccounted for.
Speaking to the media after a briefing by mine management on Thursday, Shabangu said no worker would be allowed on site and in areas affected by the incident.
“Once the last remaining employee has been found and the fire has been brought under control, we will then begin with an inquiry in terms of the Mine Health and Safety Act, to discover what led to this incident,” she asserted.
Departmental inspectors, led by the chief inspector of mines, had been on site since the day of the incident.
“This is a lesson for us all. The gold industry has, over the past five years, improved its health and safety standards tremendously and for such an incident to occur is, obviously, a setback.
“As the regulator, we must look at what happened and learn from it to ensure we can, as far as possible, prevent it in future,” Shabangu noted.