Archives

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 22 (Reuters) Five miners were killed after two earth tremors struck the Driefontein gold mine in South Africa, the company said on Tuesday.

The last three bodies were found by rescue teams some nine hours after the tremors shook the mine, trapping the workers about 3,000 metres underground.

"Management expresses its sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased and have undertaken to do everything possible to support them through this tragedy," mine owner Gold Fields Ltd said in a statement.

The tremors shook the mine at around 0620 GMT, with the damage confined to a new development area. Production was not affected, a company spokesman said.

Embedded deep in hard rock, South African gold is difficult, dangerous and expensive to extract.

The industry's safety record has improved in recent years due to better equipment and training, but at extreme depths mining is still a dangerous job.

In 2000, 285 miners died, compared with 533 deaths in 1995, while mining-related injuries dropped to 4,728 from 7,717.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager