[miningmx.com] – ILLEGAL mining accounts for 10% of overall murders in South Africa’s Gauteng province, said newspaper The Citizen which cited the comments of the executive council member for the province’s Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane.
“There are those rich people who use some of the less fortunate people to mine illegally on their behalf,” said Nkosi-Malobane. “Therefore, those people – the kingpins – are the ones that we need to act against in order to close this illegal market before we can deal with the small men on the street,” she said.
Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye Gold, said in February last year that illegal mining was endemic in South Africa’s gold mining sector with gold theft occurring in operating as well as abandoned mines. His company spent up to R75m a year attempting to contain the problem.
Every mine has got a problem,” said Froneman. “It’s not just outside but our own employees as well.” Employees would engage in illegal mining during their leave period. “It is a real issue that is totally out of control,” he said.
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