BARBERTON – The search for the remains of three Lily Gold Mine workers — who were trapped underground in Barberton in Mpumalanga in February last year, when a lamp-room container they were working in fell into a sinkhole — would resume in September, the company said on Thursday.

Lily mine’s business rescue practitioner, Rob Devereux, told the African News Agency that the company has finally secured funding of 20-million Canadian dollars from Galane Gold, a Canadian mining company.

He said rescue workers would have to start by opening up the decline, which is a sloping underground opening for machine access from one level to another or from the surface, in a quest to get to the remains of the workers.

“Once we open up the decline, we will move to the remains of the workers,” said Devereux, adding that Lily mine has not yet received the funding it has secured from Galane Gold.

“The money does not come up from the air. There are processes we have to go through. We are waiting for contracts and various other things.”

Lily mine workers Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyerende were trapped underground when a lamp-room container they were working in fell into a sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar.

Rescue operations were launched the same month in an attempt to recover the bodies of the three workers, but later aborted as the mine was declared unsafe. Lily mine, which is owned by Vantage Goldfields, subsequently applied to be placed under business rescue administration.

A number of Lily mineworkers have since taken voluntary severance packages and left the company.

Devereux said on Thursday Lily mine has still not paid other workers their outstanding wages for April and May 2016. Lily mine would use the money it would get from Galane Gold to pay its workers their outstanding wages and resume operations after the conclusion of rescue operations, he added.

“Once we receive the money, we will pay the people. The people will then resume work. We will also give the current workers preference to other people [when resuming mining operations].”

Mpumalanga provincial secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Thabo Mokoena, said the federation was not aware that Lily mine has secured funding. He said the Department of Mineral Resources has paid each and every family of the three trapped workers R200 000 as compensation, as they were promised by Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane after the tragedy last year.