Harmony halts blasts amid ‘tragic’ week

[miningmx.com] – HARMONY Gold suspended blasts for 24 hours at all its mines as it absorbed the news of more fatalities at two other operations following eight deaths at its Doornkop mine in an underground fire.

The fatalities of the last week, which are most likely to total 11 once a ninth missing miner’s body is recovered at Doornkop, more than double fatalities for the year at the firm which were at seven at the half-year stage.

Graham Briggs, CEO of Harmony Gold, declared the events were a tragedy and said the accidents were “unacceptable”.

At Kusasalethu, a worker was “inundated by backfill material” whilst at Joel, in the Free State, an employee died in a blasting accident.

Briggs said at the group’s December quarter results presentation on February 3 that certain management changes – which included Kusasalethu – would “… contribute to an improvement in safety at those operations in future.

He added that mines minister, Susan Shabangu, was about to announce best ever safety statistics for 2013 in her speech at the Mining Indaba. As it turned out, Shabangu didn’t comment in detail on the safety improvements.

“The past two days have been tragic for Harmony, having lost our colleagues at three of our operations in three separate events. This is unacceptable,’ said Briggs.

“During these safety shifts, general managers will lead their senior teams underground, re-enforcing safety messages and procedures, particularly in respect of critical safety areas. Unions will play an important role throughout this process in facilitating engagement and supporting leadership,’ he said.

Shares in Harmony, which had risen about 10% since the end of last year, were under pressure falling about 2.5% on February 7.