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News24 reports that a former Lily Mine shift boss testified at an inquest in the Mbombela Magistrate's Court that illegal mining was the order of the day at the mine, long before the tragedy that left three workers trapped underground on 6 February 2016.
Jacobus Potas testified on Monday at the inquest into the death of Solomon Nyirenda, Pretty Nkambule and Yvonne Mnisi, who were buried underground when the container they were working in plunged into a sinkhole. "There were constant raids [for illegal miners] at the mine. In one incident, we recovered a generator, clothes and drilling machinery belonging to zama zamas. Illegal mining activities were part of our lives. They were illegally mining all over the mine,” Potas stated. He disputed earlier evidence by another witness. Dean Ackerman, who worked for Lily Mine, claimed that he and other miners were ordered to blast and drill the crown pillar at Level 4, which could have caused the mine to collapse. Ackerman testified that they drilled the crown pillar repeatedly until it became thin. But Potas asserted that this was impossible, saying. “It was too high to reach it … We didn't mine the crown pillar. The whole mine was below the crown pillar. Under the crown pillar there was an open space. I don't understand what Ackerman meant when he testified that we mined on the crown pillar. There were no open voids between two or three levels as he had claimed." The inquest continues.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ntwaagae Seleka at News24
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