Lily Mine refutes employee suicide reports

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 Feb 17, 2016

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Barberton – The Lily Mine in Mpumalanga where three mine workers remain trapped, has refuted media reports that its safety officer had committed suicide.

“It’s always unfortunate when you hear of death, but we are stating that the man who reportedly committed suicide was not working at this mine,” Lily Mine media liaison officer Coetzee Zietsman told reporters at the mine premises in Barberton, Mpumalanga, on Wednesday.

“We hear that he used to do contractual work for the Vantage Goldfields group here and there, but he did not work here. He was not involved with the ongoing operations at any point.”

Lily Mine, owned by Vantage Goldfields, is currently closed and rescue missions are on hold following two collapses at the sinkhole where the three mine workers have remained trapped for a week and a half already.

Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda became trapped underground on February 5 when the container they were working in fell into a sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar before being covered by huge rocks.

Seventy six other workers were rescued from underground following the collapse.

Families of the three miners have been camping inside the mine premises.

African News Agency

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