Although South Africa’s mining safety legislation provides adequate mechanisms for the appeal of safety-related minining stoppages, mining companies have been reluctant to make use of this law, says senior advocate JG Rautenbach.

But he hastens to concede that the country’s mining safety legislation “is not perfect in making provision for expedited procedures”.

Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act has come under fire in recent months for having had a dramatic effect on produc-tion volumes as a result of safety stoppages enforced in terms of this legislation.

Rautenbach says that, while production and earnings are negatively affected by suspended mining activities, the Act does make fair allowance for mining employers to appeal to the courts to reverse cessation judgements by the mines inspectorate.

“It is interesting to observe that, from various cases reported in both the High Court and the Labour Court, mining companies have generally been reluctant to make use of the law and the court to obtain the necessary relief from stoppages,” he points out.

Earlier this month, Mining Weekly reported that platinum major Lonmin suffered a production loss of 132 000 t during the third quarter of 2011 at its K3 and E1 shafts, after two fatalities in April last year that resulted in Section 54 shutdowns.

Meanwhile, Impala Platinum lost about 8 000 oz of platinum production owing to Section 54 notices in the first quarter of last year, with a similar amount lost in October 2010 as a result of a significantly high number of Section 54 suspensions.

Further, Aquarius Platinum reported that attributable produc-tion at its Marikana operation fell by 22% to 52 962 oz of platinum-group metals in the 2011 financial year. This was the result of two weeks of lost underground production owing to a Section 54 suspension.

Rautenbauch believes that a practical implementation of the law would require the mine inspector to submit adequate notice of the intended action to be taken, which, in this instance, is the possible halting or suspension of activities in a particular section of a mine or all mining activities.

“This would allow the employer to file proper representations in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the possible closure, and to come to an agreement with the inspectorate as to what steps should be taken to prevent suspension of activities,” he concludes.

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