A worker has died at platinum-group metals (PGMs) producer Impala Platinum's (Implats') No 10 shaft on Tuesday night after a fall-of-ground incident, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Implats spokesperson Alice Lourens told Mining Weekly Online that production at the shaft still was ongoing.

However, she explained that the worker was a development rock drill operator and the company had stopped on-rig development while the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) and Implats were conducting an investigation.

She could not confirm when the investigation would be completed.

Meanwhile, workers at AngloGold Ashanti's TauTona mine, in Carletonville, would, on Thursday, attend a memorial service for a colleague who died in a fall-of-ground incident on August 15.

AngloGold Ashanti spokesperson Joanne Jones told Mining Weekly Online that the memorial service would be held at 16:00 and that the company anticipated normal production to continue for the rest of the day.

A section of the shaft pillar area where the worker had died still remained closed while the company was making sure that it was safe for work to continue, Jones commented.

AngloGold Ashanti had closed two sections of the mine on August 15 - the shaft pillar area where the fatality had occurred, and another where seismic activity was experienced. The second area had already been reopened.

Production at AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng mine, again in the Carletonville area, had also been disrupted on August 21, when nearly 16 000 workers had downed tools to observe a day of mourning for a colleague who had died in a tramming accident the week before.

Gold producer DRDGold also confirmed that it had been informed by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that employees at its Blyvooruitzicht mine, south of Carletonville, intended on observing a day of mourning on Thursday.

NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said over 5 000 employees would down tools at the mine from 24:00 on Wednesday to 24:00 on Thursday, to mourn the death of a colleague who had died in a fall-of-ground incident last week.

DRDGold spokesperson James Duncan said the company had been informed that workers would not report for Wednesday's night shift or Thursday's day shift, but as far as DRDGold was aware, the employees would report for work for Thursday's night shift.

Meanwhile, PGMs miner Eastplats had confirmed that three people had been seriously injured in an underground vehicle accident at the Crocodile River mine on Tuesday night. A vehcile carrying 11 people had collided with a utility vehicle.

"The people carrier was transporting employees to work in the no 1 decline shaft at Zandfontein. Three people have been hospitalised with serious injuries as a result. Other employees who were on the vehicle who sustained minor injuries were treated and have since been discharged from hospital," the company reported in a media release.

An investigation by the DME was under way.

Meanwhile, the NUM also expressed concern over the death of a 12-year-old boy who had drowned at a rehabilitated slimes dam in Phomolong, near Welkom.

To subscribe to Mining Weekly's print magazine email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or buy now.