JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African gold-miner Harmony Gold has reported a fatality at its Doornkop plant, outside Roodepoort.

Harmony spokesperson Esha Brijmohan told Mining Weekly Online that a Section 54 notice had been issued to the plant after a conveyor belt accident resulted in the death of an employee.

Harmony management, alongside representatives from the Department of Mineral Resources, launched an investigation into the accident on Monday, and Brijmohan said that the gold miner would present its findings on Tuesday.

She further added that production at the Doornkop mine would not be affected, however, ore earmarked for treatment and refining would be stockpiled until the plant was reopened. Brijmohan said that it would then take about a month to diminish the backlog in ore.

Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said that the Doornkop Plant had had an “excellent” safety record and had been fatality-free since April 2006, prior to this unfortunate incident.

“We have rolled-out effective behavior-based safety programmes at all operations, but we will continue doing more to improve safety throughout the company,” he said.

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