Photo by: Bloomberg
Johannesburg (miningweekly.com) – Proto teams have rescued a contractor who had been trapped underground following a fall-of-ground incident at Sibanye Gold’s Cooke 1 Shaft since Monday.
The contractor, who had allegedly been involved in illegal mining activities when the incident occurred, was taken to hospital.
The search continued for a second contractor, who rescuers suspected may be deceased.
“Sibanye Gold has stringent rules in place to prevent this from happening; however, the scourge of illegal mining across the country is rampant,” Sibanye Gold spokesperson James Wellstead told Mining Weekly Online.
He said the gold miner had various mitigation tools in place to prevent illegal mining activity from happening, such as biometric access controls and frequent underground raids, but illegal miners still found their way in.
He noted that Sibanye had 40 000 workers going underground every day and that it was difficult to monitor the movements of everyone.
He said the miner would soon start testing new technology to make it easier to locate people who may go missing underground.