Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has agreed with the CEOs of platinum mining companies on measures to improve safety in South Africa’s growing platinum sector.
“We are all committed to improving safety and have agreed to work together, as a collective through the Mine Health and Safety Council, to identify problems and implement solutions which will improve safety specifically in our platinum mines,” Minister Shabangu said after a meeting with 15 Chief Executive Officers of South African platinum mines.
Shabangu called the meeting after five workers died in a fall of ground accident at Aquarius Platinum’s Marikana mine in Rustenburg, North West Province, last week.
“We are talking about human lives and the life of each worker who goes underground is precious. Any loss of life is a huge blow to the mining industry and we have to do everything in our power to prevent further loss of life. Government, business and labour have a responsibility to save lives and so we must work together to find ways of improving safety in our mines,” Shabangu said.
The minister said the meeting had yielded positive results because the CEOs shared their experiences, challenges and some of the initiatives which they had already taken to improve safety in their mines.
South Africa’s platinum sector is relatively new and the estimated value of its platinum reserves shows that the sector will experience significant growth in the future. It was for this reason, combined with the fact that the platinum mines were experiencing disturbing accidents, that the meeting was called specifically with CEOs of platinum mining companies.
Shabangu said, “We have agreed to look, for example, at how rock engineers can work together with government’s mine inspectors and with trade unions to share information and share best practice models. We have also agreed that skills and training which are specific to the platinum sector must be a priority. These are just some of the measures we have agreed on to improve safety in our platinum mines.”
Enquiries:
Jeremy Michaels
Cell: 082 772 1122
E-mail: jeremy.michaels@dmr.gov.za
