Rescue operations are currently underway at the AngloGold Ashanti Maponeng mine in the western part of Gauteng, for a miner who has been trapped since Saturday.
Chris Nthite, spokesperson of AngloGold said on Wednesday that there has been a series of seismic events occurring at the mine in the early hours of Saturday, which resulted in the death of a miner.
Nthite told reporters that the man was a winch operator. Another miner suffered injuries and is in a stable condition in hospital. Operating teams are currently hard at work to rescue the last trapped miner.
“A recovery operation, comprising a number of proto teams including those from AngloGold Ashanti and from its peers’ mines in the region are safely working through challenging ground conditions to reach our colleague, whose condition is unknown at this stage,” Nthiti said.
The spokesperson also said that a third miner was trapped around 3,8km underground, with the mine being just over 4km deep.
Nthite was asked the ages of the miner and he said: “It’s company policy not to publicly disclose names or any biographical information of employees.”
He said the company is providing the much needed support to the two families through this very difficult period. All mining operations at the mine have since been suspended.
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