RUSTENBURG (CU)_Over the recent months, there has been a significant increase in safety concerns in South Africa’s mining industry, with the sector facing a second year of regression in the safety performance since the record low of 51 fatalities in 2019. Accordingly, government officials, mining bodies and other interested parties recently met for a mine safety conference with the aim of addressing rising death toll in South Africa’s shafts.
Just a week later, a five miners are reportedly missing at Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg mine following a mud rush, which tore through the operation’s 6 shaft on Sunday (28 Nov). Two individuals managed to escape the incident with minor injuries, as rescue teams worked underground in search of the five missing miners.
“Available information is that seven employees were working at the bottom of the shaft when the area became inundated as a result of a mud rush. Two employees safely exited the area with minor injuries and are receiving counselling and support. As at 18:00, five employees remain unaccounted for. Two search and rescue teams are currently working underground in an effort to locate the missing employees,” Implats said in a statement following the incident.
They managed to reach the trapped miners by mid-afternoon on Monday following which, the Johannesburg-based metals miner revealed that three of the five workers had died, bringing the total number of fatalities at the company’s Rustenburg operations in recent days to four. The two other miners who remained went missing on Sunday were rescued and now remain in a ‘serious but stable condition’ in hospital.
Experts describe mud rushes as an abrupt inflow of mud from a draw point or an underground opening into mines. They are known to pose a major hazard to safety in underground mining. It has been compared to a tsunami of mud barreling through shafts. “The rapidity of the mud inflow is such that escape of personnel in its path is most unlikely, with terrible consequences for safety,” read the description given by a 2005 paper in the Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM).
