Cosatu slams re-opening of Lily Mine

12/02/2015 Scenes from a video provided by the mine showing the extend of the damage and rescue operation underway at Vantage Goldfields' Lily Mine in Barberton. Three mineworkers are yet to be retreived after the rescue operation went into it's eighth day. Picture: Screengabs Vantage Goldfiels Mine

12/02/2015 Scenes from a video provided by the mine showing the extend of the damage and rescue operation underway at Vantage Goldfields' Lily Mine in Barberton. Three mineworkers are yet to be retreived after the rescue operation went into it's eighth day. Picture: Screengabs Vantage Goldfiels Mine

Published May 31, 2016

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Johannesburg - Cosatu yesterday slammed the decision by Lily Mine’s senior management to resume operations at the mine after Canadian company AfroCan Resources Gold said it would invest $11 million (R174m) over two months, starting in June, in Vantage, that owns both the Lily and Barbrook mines.

Mine operations have been on hold since February after rocks fell in the entrance of a shaft, trapping three workers in a container, while 76 survived.

Read: Owner of Lily Mine sends SOS to the IDC

“The decision to resume operations before the rescue operations have been finalised proves that Lily Mine views workers as cheap labour that is easily disposable,” said Cosatu.

But trade union Solidarity’s general secretary, Gideon du Plessis, disagreed: “What Cosatu is demanding is simply ill-considered because it will lead to the mine’s liquidation and 900 job losses because the company cannot afford to spend the R153m it will cost to develop the decline shaft, without getting the mine into production to generate an income to pay their workforce.”

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