MINING fatalities in South Africa increased in 2020 year-on-year with the number of multiple fatalities per accident also rising.
“Though we didn’t have a disaster this year, more worrying to us is the significant number of multiple fatalities in 38 fatal accidents compared to 42 last year,” said South African mines minister, Gwede Mantashe, in a statement.
Fatalities totalled 52 this year with a month left to run which compares to 51 fatalities in 2019. However, last year’s number represented a 37% improvement on 2018. Most fatalities in 2019 were at South Africa’s platinum group metal mines (20), according to the Minerals Council South Africa.
The latest major safety event in South Africa’s mining sector was a “geotechnical incident” at the Gamsberg zinc mine in the Northern Cape in which one miner died and eight others returned safely. Vedanta Zinc International, which owns the mine, is looking for the last of 10 miners who were trapped in the incident on November 17.
Mantashe’s comments followed a ‘Principals’ meeting consisting of representatives from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), the labour movement, and producers.
Said Mantashe: “There is a trend to rush to increase production, with people dying in the process. We must prioritise the health and safety of persons at the mines at all times. We must not see each other as enemies”.
Production in South Africa’s mining sector was 2.8% below the level prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The mining sector is recovering. We are happy with the V- shaped recovery,” Mantashe said.
There was no mention by the DMRE of recent promises to overhaul the country’s dysfunctional mining cadastre, although Mantashe called for improved investment in exploration which he described as the “life blood of mining”.
“It is receiving the highest level of attention that it deserves, but there is no time-frame,” said Thabo Mokoena, a director-general of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in October when asked about a new mining cadastre.
Speaking at the Joburg Indaba, a mining conference, Mokoena said Government had targeted a 50% reduction in the wait time for prospecting and mining licence applications, and would present an “exploration strategy in the next three months”.
At a later conference in November, Mantashe backed off the three-month timeline indicating it might take longer to modernise the system criticised by consultancy PwC which said the cadastre was “broken”.
