Photo by: Bloomberg
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – On Monday, more than 1 000 National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members would attend the memorial service of an Arnot mine employee who died in an underground accident over the weekend at the Exxaro operation.
A preliminary investigation showed that Solomon Latebotse Mashigo was fatally injured after being struck by a piece of rock during the operation of continuous miner equipment.
Exxaro, in conjunction with the Department of Mineral Resources, initiated a full investigation.
NUM national health and safety secretary Erick Gcilitshana called on companies to “invest more money in protecting the lives of workers than focusing on profits”.
“As the NUM, we believe that all accidents can be prevented including this one. [The fall] of rocks has been one of the major killers in the mining industry,” he said.