Barberton - Rescuers will not be going underground to attempt to bring three trapped Lily Mine workers, who have buried for 10 days, to the surface unless results of a geotechnical assessment permit, Vantage Goldfields CEO Mike McChesney said on Monday.
McChesney however said after the initial February 5 collapse, there was “a further slump on Saturday, which was called a second collapse” but there was no third collapse as reported by some media outlets on Sunday.
“I must just inform you that this is not a third collapse. This was scaling of the open pit or the sinkhole. It is the slabbing of the rock that is on the sides and has been weakened at the bottom so it slabs or scales down,” said McChesney at the mine shaft in Barberton, Mpumalanga.
“It makes it very dangerous for the rescue operations underground where the operation was being conducted and will be resumed. Until we understand the geotechnical movement around our shaft, we cannot put people [rescuers] down that shaft.
Also read: Trapped miners ‘will be located’
On Monday morning, several vehicles from the police's VIP protection unit could be seen doing rounds inside the gated mine premises. Journalists were kept outside the gates.
McChesney said the rescue mission had not resumed after it was halted on Saturday.
“As I've notified everybody, on Saturday afternoon we had to withdraw everybody, suspend the rescue operations pending a full geotechnical assessment,” McChesney. “Now the situation is that the engineers and geologists are on site, monitoring the movement in the pit. Until we have their results over the next few hours and days, we will keep the situation as it is.”
On Saturday, Vantage Goldfields offered R200 000 in compensation for families of each of the three miners still trapped at its Lily Mine.
Mineral Resources Ministers Mosebenzi Zwane announced on Saturday that there was also compensation for the other group of more than 70 miners who were rescued from the mine.
“I'm saying I have engaged with the mine. The effort that I have announced [the money] is specifically from the mine,” Zwane said while addressing reporters.
“After our engagement with the mine, we agreed that 'let's look after our workers'. After all, these people work for all of us, we agreed. We came to an understanding that those who survived will each get R50 000 and for the three still trapped underneath the soil, by the time we get their container above the ground, each of them gets R200 000.”
He said the mine had been “selfless” in the deliberations.
Monday marked 10 days since Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza, and Solomon Nyarenda were trapped underground when the lamp room container they were working in fell into a sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar before being covered by huge rocks. Seventy-six mineworkers were rescued following the collapse.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY