Families pray for Lily Mine victims

JUST over a month since a sinkhole at Lily Mine in Mpumalanga buried three workers deep underground, the families still hope they will be found alive.

Pretty Mabuza, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyarenda — all surface workers in the lamproom — were swallowed along with the container they were working in after the crown pillar at the gold mine in Barberton collapsed on February 5.

The rescue operations were put on hold after a week when additional rockfalls made it too dangerous to continue. Meanwhile, work began on drilling an additional access shaft.

The families have stayed at the mine throughout. Mabuza’s sister, Gladys Nkambule, said their mother and Mabuza’s husband were still sleeping at the mine in the hope of hearing good news.

“Yes, it’s been a long time, but we can’t lose hope because that is all we have. As long as God is with us, we can still get what we’re praying for,” she said.

The mine has kept the families updated about rescue operations.

“We can’t really blame the mine because they are trying and continue to try, but there have been tremendous challenges, like the unstable ground and the machinery breaking down.”

Mine spokesman Coetzee Zietsman said a specialised team and equipment started work on the new shaft on February 20. “The drilling team . . . are some of the best in the world, as is the equipment they use,” he said.

The new shaft was completed last Sunday and by Tuesday the first team of experts went underground to assess the situation.

Zietsman said a report had been submitted and it was now up to the mine’s management, the Department of Mineral Resources and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union to discuss the way forward.

The drilling of the new shaft went more quickly than anticipated, but Zietsman said they still faced challenges. “The most serious is the stability of the ground that fell in. They also had to reconfigure the ventilation shaft and equip it with hoisting gear to make it possible to send people and equipment down the shaft.”

The new shaft is about 800m from where the rescuers believe the container to be.

“We simply cannot say [when we will get to the container], but we believe it will be a process of probing and investigating before we can figure out exactly where it is,” said Zietsman “Only after that can we start digging towards it and make plans to get it out.”

He said it was a very complex operation and the mine could not risk the safety of rescue workers.