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SA govt to launch safety audit Posted: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 [miningmx.com] -- THE South African government is to launch an audit into the country's mines to determine whether they meet health and safety standards, said Sapa, a newswire service. Citing a statement issued by the presidency, Sapa said: "The President has asked the Minister to conduct an audit of all mines to determine whether they meet health and safety standards as prescribed in law." However, Buyelwa Sonjica, the mines minister, told a radio station she had only heard about the audit on a morning news report and was unclear what the terms of the audit would be. "I've just heard the president has called for an audit. I still have to get a briefing from him," Sonjica said on SaFM. The Presidency website, however, has published a statement from Mbeki calling for the audit. It's not clear whether the audit will cover just the gold mining industry to extend to all mining operations in South Africa, underground and surface mines. Mbeki also expressed "utmost satisfaction" with the successful rescue of 3,200 miners who were trapped underground at Harmony Gold's Elandsrand, a gold mine south west of Johannesburg. The audit comes after a number of high profile accidents in South Africa's underground mines including the death of 12 miners at Anglo Platinum's Rustenburg section in the first half of the calendar year. There have been other instances including the death of four mines at AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng mine, which is near Elandsrand in the Carletonville district. Last week, Harmony also reported an underground fire at its St Helena mine in the Free State province. Miningmx reported on October 3 that South Africa's mines minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, was growing increasingly weary of the mining industry's poor safety record. "We have the power to close mines in terms of Section 54 of the Health and Safety Act and we also have the power to prosecute," said Bontle Mafuna, spokesperson for the DME. "We will consider those actions if this record continues. We will also consider making amendments to the act if we have to," she said. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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