JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – On Wednesday, a two-day hearing would start in London’s High Court to decide whether 2 500 gold miners who worked at Anglo American South Africa’s (AASA’s) gold mines can pursue their silicosis compensation claims in England.

The claimants, who hail from impoverished areas in the Eastern Cape, the Free State and Lesotho, are accusing AASA of negligently controlling and advising the mines with respect to dust control, which they say led to them contracting silicosis and silicotuberculosis from excessive dust exposure while working at the mines.

The claims were instituted in the UK in September 2011, where the courts had well-developed procedures for handling mass claims and the levels of damages obtained there if succesful were likely to be substantially higher than in South Africa.

Under European law, courts have jurisdiction over defendants that are domiciled in the European Union. A company is domiciled where it has its central administration.

Therefore the claimants argued that AASA was domiciled in England, as its central administration was in London where the head office owner company Anglo American was currently based. However, AASA contended that its central administration was in Johannesburg.

A study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in 2008 found a 25% prevalence of silicosis in former miners from Lesotho who had been employed long-term at AASA's President Steyn gold mine, in the Free State.

In March this year, AASA confirmed that it had been served with a silicosis class action application by the Legal Resources Centre, but insisted that it was not liable for the silicosis claims and would defend the actions.

At the time, AASA told Mining Weekly Online that it maintained that the gold mining companies that owned and operated the mines and employed the mineworkers who claim to have contracted silicosis during the time, were responsible for the health and safety of their employees and had taken reasonable steps to protect them.