30 May 2016

Four miners died following an accident at BCL Mine in Selebi Phikwe on May 29 at 9pm.

The mine’s public relations and marketing manager, Mr James Molosankwe, confirmed in an interview that six others were in critical conditions at the hospital. He said investigations were still ongoing to determine the cause of the incident.

Meanwhile, a press release from the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources has confirmed that the fatal incident took place after 9pm at South East Extension shaft.

The release confirms that 10 men were on board the underground personnel transport. The release further states that the ministry had initiated investigations to get to the root cause of the accident.

The statement indicates that the ministry will contract an independent safety auditor to look at safety at the BCL Mine. Last year in February, the mine had an incident at Phikwe Central -Shaft three where two people lost their lives while four got serious injuries.

According to reports, an explosion took place during underground operations causing the fatal incident.  In July of the same year, another incident occurred at Selebi Shaft and three people lost their lives.

However, the BCL Mine introduced the Behaviour Based Care (BBC) model after the incidents that took place last year with the aim of preventing accidents. ends