That still means that, on average, more than four mine workers were killed on the job every month last year. But so far in 2023, the monthly death toll is zero.
The reasons for this improving state of affairs are many. The decline in SA of deep-level gold mining – which by its very nature is hazardous – is obviously one.In 1987, when South Africa was still the world’s top producer of the precious metal, its gold mines employed 554,000 people. By 2021, that number stood at 94,000, reflecting South Africa’s shrinkage to the world’s number 10 producer.
Fewer miners and fewer underground shifts should translate into fewer accidents, and overall South Africa’s mine labour force is about half of what obtained in the 1980s. But this is far from the only reason. More telling measurements, such as “fatality frequency rates” , measuring deaths per million hours worked, have also fallen sharply in recent years.
“Among the leading practices adopted by South Africa’s underground mines are permanent meshes held up with bolts in tunnels and working areas, brightly lit working areas so miners can check for dangers rather than just relying on their cap lamps, safer ways to remove loose rocks from the roofs and walls of tunnels and working areas, and improved methods to identify loose rocks,” the Minerals Council said in a statement.
South Africa’s geology is dangerous, but it is becoming more forgiving. And one can only hope that January’s achievement will be repeated in February.
But mining had been reduced to 10% of what it used to be!