Wrap Text
Further update to the tragic seismic incident at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Driefontein operations
Sibanye Gold Limited
Trading as Sibanye-Stillwater
Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa
Registration number 2002/031431/06
Share code: SGL
ISIN – ZAE000173951
Issuer code: SGL
(“Sibanye-Stillwater” or “the Group” or “the Company”)
Further update to the tragic seismic incident at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Driefontein
operations
Johannesburg, 11 May 2018. Further to the announcement on 7 May 2018, regarding
the tragic seismic incident at the Masakhane mine, Driefontein operations,
Sibanye-Stillwater (Tickers JSE: SGL and NYSE: SBGL) is pleased to report that
one of the six employees who was hospitalised due the incident, has been
discharged and is in good health. The other five rescued employees remain in a
stable condition and are making good progress. The Company will continue to
ensure that these employees receive appropriate medical attention and ongoing
support and counselling.
Sibanye-Stillwater management has been focused over the course of the past week
on ensuring the wellbeing and providing support to the families, friends and
colleagues of the deceased and injured employees. A well-attended memorial
service involving the Minister of Mineral Resources, the Sibanye-Stillwater
Board, management and union leaders was held at Driefontein yesterday, with
funeral and remembrance services for the deceased employees, scheduled for the
coming weekend.
Sibanye-Stillwater management will be conducting a thorough investigation
across the entire Masakhane mine, in order to assess the impact on the
operations, of the numerous seismic events that occurred during the last week.
The underground inspection is expected to take approximately one week, and
operations at the Masakhane mine will remain suspended during this period.
Production from the rest of the mines making up the Driefontein operations will
continue as normal.
Planned gold production from the Driefontein operations is approximately 50kg
of gold per day, with the Masakhane mine comprising approximately 20% or 11kg
(354oz) per day. Since the incident occurred on Thursday 3 May 2018,
approximately 230kg (7,395oz) of planned gold production is estimated to have
been lost. In 2017 Sibanye-Stillwater’s SA Gold operations produced 43,634kg
(1.4 million oz) of gold.
Background on the incident:
A seismic event (recording a local magnitude of 2.5) occurred on the western side
of the Driefontein operations at approximately 12:15 on Thursday, 3 May 2018.
Immediately after the location (epicentre) of this seismic event was identified
by Sibanye-Stillwater’s extensive underground seismic monitoring systems, the
teams working in the western side were contacted to ascertain if there had been
any related safety concerns. One of the teams did not respond on the first
call, and a rescue process was immediately triggered. An emergency control
room was established and paramedics and mine rescue teams deployed to the mine.
The unaccounted for team subsequently responded and it was established that the
installed support and other safety systems in the area had prevented
significant damage, and as a result, there were no injuries or safety issues
resulting from the seismic event.
A mine rescue team had already been deployed and was making its way
underground, when an unrelated second seismic event (recording a local magnitude
of 2.2) occurred at about 13:20, on the eastern side of the Masakhane mine
approximately 2.5km away from the first event.
Although of a lower magnitude than the first event, the second seismic event
caused a working stope (40 level,-27 East, 7 West panel), which was close to
the epicentre of the seismic event to be inundated with loose rocks, trapping
13 employees working in the stope. No other stopes in the mine were affected
and all remaining employees at Driefontein were safely evacuated from the
underground operations.
Shortly after the incident, rescue efforts began in earnest. All relevant
stakeholders including the DMR and unions were alerted about the incident and
once the missing employees had been identified, efforts to contact their
families were made. The families were offered transport to the mine, where they
received regular updates on the rescue mission, and support, trauma counselling
and medical care.
Specially trained rescue teams from Mine Rescue Services, supported by Sibanye-
Stillwater employees and guided by management in the emergency control room,
worked relentlessly in extremely challenging conditions, for more than 40 hours
to rescue and recover the missing employees, with the last employee being
recovered at about 07:30 on Saturday 5 May 2018. The fact that there were no
further injuries despite the trying conditions, is testament to the training
and commitment of these teams. We would like to thank all of the Mine Rescue
Services brigadesmen from across the SA Mining industry, who volunteered for
this essential service. A special note of appreciation goes to our own
employees who volunteered and worked non-stop through the entire rescue period
alongside the Mine Rescue Services brigadesmen. You are all true heroes.
Blasting operations were suspended across the Driefontein operations following
the seismic event. Blasting operations subsequently resumed at the unaffected
Driefontein mines on Saturday, 5 May 2018.
Ends.
Investor relations contact:
James Wellsted
Head of Investor Relations
+27 (0) 83 453 4014
Email: ir@sibanyestillwater.com
Sponsor: J.P. Morgan Equities South Africa (Proprietary) Limited
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning
of the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified
by the use of words such as “target”, “will”, “forecast”, “expect”,
“potential”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “can” and other similar
expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are
not statements of historical matters. The forward-looking statements set
out in this announcement involve a number of known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, many of which are difficult to predict
and generally beyond the control of Sibanye-Stillwater, that could cause
Sibanye-Stillwater’s actual results and outcomes to be materially
different from historical results or from any future results expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Sibanye-
Stillwater undertakes no obligation to update publicly or release any
revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances after the date of this announcement or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events, save as required by applicable law.
Date: 11/05/2018 04:00:00 Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE').
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