Mining Weekly reports that the Minerals Council SA (MCSA) reports that SA achieved a record six months without a mining fatality caused by a fall-of-ground (Fog) incident in its gold and platinum mines.

The entire industry was Fog-fatality-free in the second quarter of the year. The MCSA (previously called the Chamber of Mines) said that building on the record performance in the first three months of the year, when one person was however killed in a Fog incident in the coal sector, the leadership initiatives, implementation of strategies, leading practices and the MCSA-led Fog Action Plan to mitigate incidents resulted in no fatalities in the gold and platinum mines for the first six months of the year. This was significant, because gold and platinum mines have not had a Fog-fatality-free first six months of the year in the history of SA mining, MCSA safety head Dr Sizwe Phakathi pointed out. There were 11 Fog fatalities by the end of June last year. In the past three years, inclusive of the industry’s record safety performance in 2019, Fog fatalities accounted for at least 20 deaths in each of those three years. “We are undertaking a comprehensive review to understand what went well and what we can learn from the past six months. The review will be done by the Minerals Council in collaboration with other stakeholders,” Phakathi advised. The results of the review will be unveiled during the National Day of Health and Safety in Mining on 3 August.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly

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