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Last Updated: Aug 26, 2008 - 1:15:11 PM |
During a week spanning 12 August to 17 August, safety performances by
both AngloGold and AngloPlats sunk at the same time the Chamber of
Mines lobbied against tougher criminal penalties and corporate
liabilities. Those arguments came in discussions during public hearings
of the proposed Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill. A Chamber of
Mines leader said such measures would undermine CEOs in their current
focus on workplace safety.
At AngloGold, one worker was killed underground on 12 August in a mine
collapse at Mponeng, while at TauTona, another miner was killed
similarly, and two others were seriously injured. This happened on 15
August. At AngloPlats, majority owned by AngloAmerican, a company that
sacked an AngloPlats CEO over safety performance, a fatality occurred
at the Mogalakwena mine (16 August) and the Amandabult mine (18 August).
AngloGold workers set up a Day of Mourning for 21 August, but it was
met with a company “no work, no pay” rule, which infuriated the
national NUM. “It is within our African culture to mourn and workers
will continue to mourn for their deceased colleagues whether or not”
the industry accepts the practice, said NUM General Secretary Frans
Baleni.
AngloGold shut production at one of the two mines stricken by the
worker fatalities, but AngloPlats continued production at both its
mines. The NUM is pushing enactment of reform legislation that would
lift maximum fines from R200,000 to R1 million on mining deaths, as
well as place criminal liabilities on company officials.
Also in the NUM, a near month-long strike by 700 miners at UK-based
Petra Diamonds Ltd.’s Heman mine ended on 19 August when the nation’s
second largest diamond producer significantly rised wages. The company
admitted during the strike that even though its wage offer was near the
inflation rate of 12%, its wage proposal would still not lift salaries
to national mining averages.
In other South African mining news, Energy and Minerals Minister
Buyelwa Sonjica emphatically blasted activists who are attempting to
block a titanium mining venture in the country’s remote western coastal
regions. Speaking in favour of a project by the Australian company
Minerals Resource Commodities and its South African subsidiary,
Transworld Energy and Minerals, she said those opposing the project now
should examine their own apartheid-era disinterest before they take up
the mantle community activists.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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