JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The consolidated application by mineworkers and the dependents of mineworkers for permission to institute class action against various mining companies arising from silicosis and/or tuberculosis (TB) contracted by working in gold mines in South Africa, was set to start in October.
JSE-listed miner Randgold and Exploration (R&E) – one of 29 respondents that have been cited – on Friday said it expected the first step in the class action, which required the certification by the court of both a silicosis and TB class, to start in the next two months.
The application instituted in the High Court was consolidated with three other applications in August 2013, which contended that from 1993 to 1996 certain R&E gold mines had failed to take steps to prevent silicosis and TB from being contracted. This was being disputed by R&E.
Initially, the main application was confined to the certification of a silicosis class against R&E, which it opposed.
In September 2014, the applicants served a joinder application requesting permission to join R&E as a respondent to the TB class. R&E did not oppose the joinder, but subsequently filed papers opposing the certification of the TB class.
“Should certification be ordered by the court, R&E will, thereafter, consider its position,” the company said in a statement.