Johannesburg - The Vantage Goldfields’ Lily Mine disaster outside Barberton has not only been tough for the families of the three mineworkers still trapped underground, but also for small businesses in the area.
Nombuso Mkabela, of Langa’s Tavern, the biggest tavern in Louieville outside Lily Mine, said the disaster had been a major contributor to the slowing of business. “The businesses have collapsed because people do not support us like they used to,” she said.
Read: Alternatives sought to reach Lily Mine container
“Patrons come to have drinks, but it has not been the same since the disaster.”
Mkabela believed that the disposable income of the mineworkers had shrunk.
“When they were working the mineworkers would get overtime allowance and weekend allowance, which they have spent,” she noted, adding that residents of Louieville, a rural community outside Barberton, mostly worked in the mines or were substance farmers with cattle and sheep.
Barberton, founded in 1884, is one of South Africa’s oldest towns. It was established four years after the discovery of alluvial gold in the area, which resulted in a gold rush.
Barberton, known for its mountainous terrain, is said to have flourished for only a brief period and soon the inhabitants began to move away to the newly discovered gold fields on the Reef.
Among the owners of mines in the Barberton are Pan African Resources, which operates the Sheba, Fairview and Consort mines.
Lily Mine has grounded its underground operations while it searches for the three mineworkers who have been trapped underground since early February.
Rescue operations have not been successful.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said last month that he had been presented with a preliminary geotechnical assessment of options for the recovery of the lamp room container by Vantage Goldfields chief executive Mike McChesney.
Zwane said in a statement previously that the report followed a review of the conditions conducted between March 1 and March 3 after the drilling of the second outlet had been completed, which had indicated it was unsafe to send teams underground to resume the rescue.
This then necessitated that other options be considered and expedited, Zwane said.
“The safest and most viable option proposed by the experts is that of a new underground-decline access,” he said.
The priority was to get the container where the employees were trapped to the surface as safely as possible.
“Government continues to treat this matter with the urgency it deserves,” he said.
BUSINESS REPORT