JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining services company Macmahon on Thursday confirmed the abduction of seven of its employees, including three Australians, two Nigerians, a New Zealander and a South African, at its operations near Calabar, in Nigeria.
The security incident also led to the death of a local Macmahon employee, who was shot dead in the attack, the ASX-listed company said in a media statement.
“We are working to ensure the safe return of all the men involved and are in communication with their families,” stated Macmahon, which earlier in the day placed its shares in a trading halt pending a stock exchange announcement about the kidnapping.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also confirmed the kidnapping of Australian citizens from a worksite in Nigeria and, according to media reports, described the incident as a “very serious criminal assault”.
Newswire Reuters reported that two of the kidnapped Macmahon workers, who were contractors for cement company Lafarge Africa, had managed to escape, although this had not been confirmed by Macmahon.
The workers were attacked on the outskirts of the city of Calabar, which is the capital of Cross River state in the Niger Delta region.
Macmahon had two contracts in Nigeria. One is a seven-year contract for quarrying operations at UniCem’s 2.5-million-tonne-a-year manufacturing plant near Calabar. UniCem is a joint venture between Lafarge, Holcim and Flour Mills of Nigeria. The other contract is to perform limestone mining activities at Lafarge’s Ewekoro cement plant. The 6.5-year contract has the option to be extended for a further two years.
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation confirmed that a South African was among the group of people kidnapped.