JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - South African labour union Solidarity said on Wednesday that mine deaths in the country had been showing a downward curve, but noted that there was still room for improvement in safety technology.

Solidarity occupational health and safety head Paul Mardon said that the mine deaths had decreased over the past year, showing that the contributions of stakeholders in the mining industry were paying off.

In 2007, a total of 221 mine deaths occurred in South African mines, which was more than four deaths a week. By 2009, the figure had decreased to 165 deaths, which was about three workers a week.

This year, 29 workers had died on local mines in the first four months, which comes to about 1,8 deaths a week.

Mardon said that the current figure was relatively low and looked promising if projections were made. "The first third of the year has passed and it appears that deaths are on the decrease. However, one death is still one death too many."

He stressed that although obstacles like the extreme depth of South African mines increased the danger, a lot could still be done to improve the technology aimed at preventing mining accidents.

"Technology that is currently used to measure underground seismic activity, for example, can monitor movement in rock to a thousandth of a millimetre, but is still not accurate enough. In spite of this technology, the time and location of a rockfall still cannot be predicted with complete accuracy," said Mardon.

Wednesday marked the International Labour Organisation's World Day for safety and health at work.