South Africa to get tough with illegal miners

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 07 Jul 2009 3:52pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Health and Safety Legal and Legislation

South Africa’s government has pledged to implement new legislation to crack down on illegal mining after more than 80 illegal miners died at Harmony Gold Mining Ltd’s Eland shaft last month.

“This government will not allow criminals to run their own mining industry,” said Minister of Mines Susan Shabangu, vowing that the department would do more to prevent illegal mining.

Marian van der Walt, spokesperson for Harmony, told MEM: “This is a problem all gold-mining companies are experiencing.
“These miners are driven by a number of things – migration, poverty and the lure of jobs,” she said.

Many of the illegal miners have been lured to South Africa by the prospect of working in the country’s rich gold mines, often unaware that they will be involved in illegal activities.

The miners who died at Eland were living and working underground, often lighting fires in the mines.
But, the government and the mining industry have vowed to work together to tackle the problem.

“All stakeholders agree that there is a shared responsibility to find a solution,” said Ms van der Walt.

Harmony is introducing scanning equipment at its mines and increasing security to combat the problem, but the company said the organised crime element of illegal mining also needed to be addressed.