JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold producer AngloGold Ashanti on Thursday reported that a night shift cleaner at the company’s Tau Lekoa mine, in the North West Province, had been fatally injured when two locomotives collided at a cross cut, 1 350 m below surface.

AngloGold Ashanti spokesperson Joanne Jones stated that all tramming activity at the mine had been stopped shortly after the accident, and the subsequent inspection of the Department of Mining.

Jones added that the mine would not undertake any blasting on Thursday night.

AngloGold Ashanti and the Department of Mining was set to meet again on Monday, to determine the way forward. Jones noted that it was too early to determine how production at the mine would be affected.

This was the fourth fatality reported in South Africa’s gold mining sector this week, with Gold Fields’ Kloof mine claiming the lives of three miners, over a two-day period.

A memorial service for the deceased would be held on Saturday at the Tau Lekoa mine.

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