Johannesburg - Vantage Goldfields yesterday invited the media for a tour of a collapsed sinkhole at its Lily Mine where three workers remain trapped, but cancelled it at the eleventh hour.
The mine’s operations manager, Mike Begg, said the turnaround was made to prevent speculation from spreading. He said this would disrupt and interfere with efforts to locate the three workers.
“To be honest, taking so many cameras into the mine, there are too many things people can film that would end up creating a Twitter conversation,” said Begg.
“We decided that it’s better to focus on the mission until it’s over. Please forgive me.”
The mission to locate Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi, and Solomon Nyerende has been plagued by setbacks, with the most recent episode being the breakdown of a specialised drilling machine at the weekend.
The trio are believed to have be trapped in a lamp-room container inside the sinkhole.
The first hurdle was when a second section of the mine collapsed eight days into the rescue mission. This was followed by a rockfall.
These setbacks complicated the rescue mission as the main shaft was compromised after the second rockfall.
However, Begg would not speculate about the condition of the three mineworkers.
He said he believed they were still alive, and that was the basis of their mission. “I still hope they are alive. Their families are still here and they too believe their loved ones are still alive,” said Begg.
Vantage Goldfields spokesman Coetzee Zietsman said the machine that had broken down was taken to eMalahleni, where it was being fixed. It was expected to be reassembled today.
“During the drilling process, part of the machine did not turn and it broke,” said Zietsman.
He explained that one of the challenges with the drilling machine was that there were no specialists in the country trained specifically to operate it. They have had to use specialists in related fields, such as geologists.
“There’s only one of these machines in the country, and it was imported from America. It is only used for big mining operations, such as this one.
“It’s similar to the one that was used in Chile a few years ago when there was a mine collapse there,” he said.
Zietsman explained the aim was to dig an 800m secondary escape route which would create an entry point for rescuers to resume the operations.
“The aim of the secondary route is not to locate the container. We know where it is. It is to create a safe passage that will allow rescuers to dig towards the container.”
He said the rescue team had set a target of three weeks to retrieve the container.
Zietsman also clarified that Vantage Goldfields, owners of the collapsed mine, would honour the promise to pay the mineworkers for their ordeal, but not as compensation, and that the amounts were still up for discussion.
There was confusion yesterday morning when Lily Mine distanced itself from an earlier commitment to compensate workers.
Zietsman said during a radio interview on SAfm’s breakfast show AM Live yesterday the mine did not offer compensation to the families.
“The mine will do everything in its power to give the right kind of support to the families. The offer (to pay compensation) did not come from the mine and there has been no money that has been paid to anyone,” Zietsman told SAfm.
This follows the announcement made by Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane on February 13 that the mine had offered to compensate the three trapped workers with R200 000 each, while the 76 miners who were initially trapped and then rescued would be given R50 000 each.
Zietsman told the radio station that the department was best placed to answer questions about compensation, not the mine. But he changed tack a short while later, saying the mine had made a commitment to honour the minister’s promises after long discussions yesterday. “We just came out of a meeting with the department and trade union Amcu. The mine will honour the minister’s promise.”
Department spokesman Martin Madlala said he was not aware that the mine would not be paying compensation to its workers.
“The minister said compensation was coming from the mine,” he said.
THE STAR