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The Chamber of Mines is pleased to note that all 955 employees have been safely brought to surface following the disruption of power supply as a result of a severe storm during the night of 31 January 2018 at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Beatrix operations, and congratulates the mine, rescue services, unions and all other parties who worked together to ensure the successful rescue of each and every employee.

The major operational incident was dealt with competently and safely by all those involved and care was taken to ensure that employees were safe and had access to food and water at all times.

The Chamber shares the concern for those who were delayed underground and for their families who were waiting for them to return and commend their patience and diligence in following the procedures that are in place to adequately deal with such eventualities.

The safety, health and wellbeing of employees are integral components of the daily operations of mining operations with the industry continually working to reduce risks in the workplace. We commend Sibanye-Stillwater’s commitment to ensure the safety of employees and the collaborative efforts with Eskom to restore power as soon as possible.

For a detailed account of events, please see Sibanye-Stillwater’s statement at https://goo.gl/kKMEcV

Issued by Chamber of Mines