JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – One of the six employees who was hospitalised after sustaining injuries in a seismic-related incident at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Driefontein mine, earlier this month, has been discharged and is in good health.
Sibanye on Friday reported that the other five rescued employees remain in a stable condition and are making good progress.
Sibanye has reportedly been focusing on ensuring the wellbeing and providing support to the families, friends and colleagues of the deceased and injured employees.
A well-attended memorial service involving Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, the Sibanye board, management and union leaders was held at Driefontein on Thursday, with funeral and remembrance services for the deceased employees scheduled for the weekend.
Sibanye management will be conducting a thorough investigation across the entire Masakhane mine to assess the impact on the operations, owing to the numerous seismic events that occurred during the last week.
The underground inspection is expected to take about a week and operations at the Masakhane mine will remain suspended during this period. Production from the rest of the mines making up the Driefontein operations will continue as normal.
Planned gold production from the Driefontein operations is about 50 kg of gold a day, with the Masakhane mine contributing about 20%, or 354 oz (11 kg), a day.
Since the incident occurred on May 3, about 7 395 oz (230 kg) of planned gold production is estimated to have been lost.