Sowetan reported on Friday that an attempt by former Lily Mine workers to go underground in a quest to find their missing colleagues had been thwarted.
Mine security stopped about 30 miners as they started digging a hole on Thursday to gain entry to an area where they believed they would find their three colleagues. Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyerenda had been working inside a container on the surface on 5 February 2016 when a crown pillar collapse swallowed it up. Skhumbuzo Mbandze indicated: “We tried by all means to go in. We were ready to search for our brother and sisters but they chased us out just when we thought the work had started. Whatever it costs, we are ready to risk our lives to make sure that we find these people because their families and us as their colleagues have still not found closure.” More than 1,000 former employees have been camping outside the mine near Barberton, Mpumalanga, demanding that it open so that they can find the trio and get their jobs back. Last week they said they would dig and blast rocks to find the trio. Mine CEO Michael Chesney said: “The mine is secure and everyone was evicted from the property yesterday (Thursday). I reiterate what I told you last time and that is we are in the process of securing new funding so that the mine will be reopened as a matter of urgency.”
- Read the full original of Mandla Khoza’s report on the above on page 6 of Sowetan of 17 May 2019
- Read too, Vantage Goldfields finds new Lily Mine investors, at City Press
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