Bloomberg reports that former mineworkers who won a R500m payout from Anglo American SA and AngloGold Ashanti for contracting lung diseases may have to wait as long as four years to receive their full compensation.  

The case involves 4,365 ex-employees and relatives of deceased workers.  The former gold miners would be medically evaluated and paid compensation depending on whether they had silicosis or silico-tuberculosis and the severity of their condition.  Individual claimants who are found to have silicosis would receive differing amounts, not an average figure.  Completion of the whole process is expected to take three to four years.  In a separate lawsuit, other ex-mineworkers won the right to bring a class action lawsuit against 32 mining companies earlier in May.  They too are seeking damages from mining companies for lung diseases contracted while working at their operations.

• Read this report by Kevin Crowley in full at BDLive
• See too, Silicosis: Clarity on Q(h)ubeka Trust payouts, at Fin24
• And also, Attorney Charles Abrahams on silicosis: ‘Someone has to bat for the underdogs’, at Daily Maverick

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