Nine die at Goldfield’s South Deep mine

Goldfields lost nine contract miners yesterday in an incident involving a lift cage at a goldmine outside Johannesburg.

The fatalities occurred at the South Deep mine, when it is believed that a cable snapped and the cage fell around 190 feet.

The workers killed are reported to have been employed by Murray & Roberts Cementation.

On Tuesday of this week, another worker was killed in a rock fall at South Deep, and four died at Gold Fields’ Driefontein mine on the same day.

South Africa has some of the deepest mines in the world and its record on mine safety is poor.

Between 1997 and 2007, deaths averaged 244 per year, but the figures rose by around 10% last year.

The country’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity trade unions have been leading the fight to improve standards and last December 240,000 mine workers took industrial action over health and safety issues.

Since that time, the government and some mining companies have closed operations when safety has been compromised and only this week, Anglo American, which has recorded nine fatalities since the beginning of this year, publicly declared its commitment to working more closely with the South African government and the NUM to improve safety.