Primary steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) on February 17 reported that there had been an incident at its Vanderbijlpark Works facility, which resulted in three employees going missing.
The company explained that a portion of a 90 m stack at one of the operation’s coke batteries failed in the early hours of February 17 and fell onto the coke battery control room, in which the three employees were working.
AMSA said search and rescue teams were working to find the missing employees, while the company had also launched a full investigation into the incident.
The area had been made safe, however, the battery was damaged in the incident and would likely be out for repairs once the extent of the damage was determined.
AMSA CEO Kobus Verster remarked that the safety of AMSA’s employees and contractors was its primary concern. “The focus now is on the search for our employees and to give support to their families and colleagues.
“A full investigation will follow to understand what happened and avoid anything like this from happening in the future.”