Armed attack alarms Sibanye

ABOUT 70 armed men attacked Sibanye Gold’s gold plant in Westonaria on Friday night last week, fired on police and made off with gold.

While the area has been plagued by illegal miners for years, this was the first direct attack on a mine’s facilities.

The attack suggests illegal mining has entered a dangerous new phase.

“The scary thing is how organised these guys are getting, almost paramilitary,” said Sibanye investor relations manager James Wellsted. “They have access to weapons, and seem to have almost military-type training. Most of them are Basothos from Lesotho.”

Sibanye’s security people noticed a few men hanging around the plant on the Wednesday before the attack. “We beefed up security, but at about 9.30 on Friday night they cut through the electric fencing and managed to enter the plant. Luckily, we got our guys out of there in time and phoned the police.

“When the police and their dog teams arrived the illegal miners started firing on them. There was a shoot-out, but luckily no one was killed,” Wellsted said.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman has been vocal about illegal gold mining, saying it was an “epidemic” in the country.

The company spends about R75-million a year trying to contain illegal mining and another R300-million on security services. If the attack on its plant is anything to go by, that bill will be increasing.

The company has repaired the electric fencing, and the plant is now being patrolled by Nyala armoured vehicles.

“But that all costs a lot of money. And the mining industry is under heavy pressure trying to cope with increasing electricity and labour costs and now these big security bills,” Wellsted said.

Sibanye opened a case of attempted murder and robbery at the Randfontein police station this week. “This is a major issue. We are in a state ’EPIDEMIC’: Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman sounds alarm of anarchy and the authorities have not managed to clamp down on this,” Wellsted said.

“We need the state to start intervening urgently.”

Froneman previously asked the defence force to step in, but the plea has fallen on deaf ears until now.

Wellsted said it was unclear how much gold the armed robbers took. “There is evidence they scraped up some stuff, but luckily they did not get to the area where the concentrated gold is kept.

“It is just so brazen attacking an operating gold plant. It shows that the problem is escalating,” Wellsted said.

The attack on the gold plant is similar to what happened at Blyvooruitzicht, where there were constant attacks on the gold plant when the mine went into liquidation. That plant was not operating. Now, with the attack at Sibanye, it appears attacks are getting more organised and brazen.

Illegal mining in South Africa has created a criminal industry that is estimated to generate R6-billion a year. It is estimated that there are 14 000 illegal miners in the country.

“If we do not get this illegal mining problem under control there will definitely be fallout, and that would in the end cost jobs and threaten the sustainability of the gold industry in the country,” Wellsted said.

He said Sibanye would be looking to start working with other mining companies to combat illegal mining and consolidate the intelligence gathered.