0% Illegal mining mayhem: 36 dead
Reuters & Miningmx reporter | Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:20[miningmx.com] -- South Africa's Harmony Gold said at least 36 illegal miners had died in an underground fire at one of its disused mines at the weekend, adding it was too dangerous to search for others. The gold miner also said that 294 other miners had been brought to the surface and arrested at its Eland shaft, in South Africa’s central Free State province, where the fire had broken out. Harmony, the world's fifth largest gold producer, could not say if more of the miners, whom it described as criminal, had died, and did not plan to send its employees on underground searches. "It is not known if other criminal miners have died, and the company says it will not deploy its own employees on underground searches, as the abandoned mining areas where the criminal miners have been active are extremely dangerous," Harmony said in a statement. In March, Harmony said 114 illegal miners, including 19 of its employees, had been arrested at eight of its mines. In October 2007, Harmony said it had discovered 23 illegal miners at its St Helena mine in the Free State, while tackling an underground fire. Illegal underground mining is possible in South Africa because the inclines and declines that sprout off the country’s many underground gold mining shafts run to tens of kilometres in distance. Moreover, the structure of South Africa’s gold mines is manifold: illegal miners can sneak past security at one mine and exit from another mine owned by a different mining company. Commenting in 2006, a Harmony spokesman said: “Syndicates can enter Brand 3 shaft and emerge at St Helena – about 10km away”. A report by the Institute for Security Services (ISS) in 2007 commissioned by the Chamber of Mines of SA found that more than 50 “pirate miners” stayed underground at one of Harmony’s Free State mines. Accomplices on the surface supplied the men with food and even delivered post. The report said gold worth R1.8bn was stolen from South Africa’s mines every year.
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