Photo by: Bloomberg
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed Harmony Gold has reported that an employee was fatally injured at its Tshepong mine, near Welkom, early on Tuesday morning, after being inundated by ore in a centre raise.
The company said investigations into the accident were under way, with all operations at the mine having been stopped.
This death marked the fifth fatal incident reported by Harmony this year.
Previously, nine workers died on February 4 after a 2.4 seismic event triggered a fall-of-ground accident and a subsequent fire some 1 733 m underground at Harmony’s Doornkop mine, 30 km west of Johannesburg.
Two days later, the company reported two more fatalities at the North West-based Kusasalethu and the Free State-based Joel mines.
A Harmony employee was also fatally injured in January in a tramming accident at the company’s Masimong mine, near Welkom.
Speaking at the memorial service for the nine workers who died in the accident at Doornkop, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said: “It is of great concern that Harmony has had four separate fatal accidents so far this year, with 12 mineworkers having lost their lives to date,” adding that the gold sector recorded 14 deaths since the year started.
Harmony CEO Graham Briggs and his management team expressed their deepest condolences to the family members of the Tshepong mine employee.