Reuters reports that gold producers will likely reach a settlement within six weeks in a lawsuit over a fatal lung disease that companies have set aside R5 billion in provisions for, a lawyer and an industry group said on Sunday.  

“I am confident we will finalise the settlement within six weeks,” said Richard Spoor, the human rights lawyer who has spearheaded the class action suit over the disease silicosis.  A spokesman for the working group on Occupational Lung Disease (OLD), a group put together by the six companies involved, said he was is “hopeful” the settlement could be reached in that timeframe.  The settlement would still need to be approved by the High Court before it was implemented.  The suit was launched around six years ago on behalf of miners suffering from silicosis, contracted by inhaling silica dust in gold mines.  The six companies involved are Anglo American, Harmony Gold, Gold Fields, African Rainbow Minerals, Sibanye-Stillwater and AngloGold Ashanti.  Anglo American no longer has gold assets but historically was a bullion producer.

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