Johannesburg - Five South African mining companies including AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-biggest producer of the metal, formed a group to look at compensation and medical care for occupational lung disease in South Africa.
The producers, which include Gold Fields, Anglo American South Africa, Harmony Gold Mining and Sibanye Gold, will hold meetings with government departments, labour unions and legal representatives of claimants next year, they said in a joint e-mailed statement.
“These companies do not believe that they are liable in respect of the claims brought, and they are defending these,” they said.
“The companies do, however, believe that they should work together to seek a solution to this South African mining industry legacy issue.”
Last year, lawyers for more than 25 000 miners and the dependents of deceased workers who contracted silicosis and tuberculosis while working on South African gold mines filed an application to combine three pending cases against producers.
The country’s gold mines caused about 1 140 new cases of silicosis annually from 1980 to 1990, David Davis, a Johannesburg-based mining analyst at SBG Securities, said in 2011.
Silicosis is caused by prolonged exposure to silica dust in mines, leaving irreversible scar tissue in lungs and making it hard to breathe.
It also heightens the risk of contracting tuberculosis. - Bloomberg News