Modern Mining October 2016

SAFETY IN MINING

MRS increasingly called on to assist at abandoned mines

zamas’ – descending a deep abandoned shaft via the still intact shaft steelwork. There was not a vestige of safety equipment in evidence, not even of the most rudimentary type. De Klerk said the MRS needed to retain the trust of illegal miners. As he said, “We cannot operate without their assistance.” He also mentioned that efforts to seal aban- doned mines had proven largely unsuccessful, with the illegal miners simply reopening them – even blasting through the concrete ‘caps’ used to prevent access to abandoned shafts. De Klerk stressed that the first priority of the MRS was to provide assistance to the formal mining industry. He added, however, that the organisation had an agreement with the DMR to render assistance at abandoned and other mines approved by the DMR. He emphasised that no assistance could be provided at such mines without DMR approval. Outlining the history of the MRS, De Klerk said the organisation could trace its origins back to 1924 when Rand Mines established a Central Rescue Training Station in Johannesburg. This was taken over by the Transvaal and OFS Chamber of Mines in 1946. Today the MRS had 45 full-time employees, he said, with Rescue Stations at Carletonville, Evander, Welkom and Steelpoort. He described the mission of the MRS as being to provide rescue and recovery services, resources and expertise for an effective emer- gency service, primarily for the South African mining industry. One of its main functions was to train rescue team members (also known as ‘brigadesmen’) to the required skills compe- tency and he noted that training had also been provided in a number of African countries and also to China, Iran and Russia. He described the MRS as one of the best res- cue organisations in the world and added that it also had some of the best equipment in the world. It was funded by the mining industry and its annual budget was currently R42 million. Also present at the media briefing was Mike Teke, President of the Chamber of Mines. Introducing the work of the MRS, he paid trib- ute to the 906 current brigadesmen, and the thousands who had preceded them. “They deserve our admiration, respect and thanks,” he said. 

Mines Rescue Services (MRS) South Africa, whose remit is to provide rescue and recovery services for South Africa’s formal mining industry, is increasingly finding itself being drawn into the rescue of illegal miners – or, more often, the recovery of their bodies – at abandoned mines. This was the message from Christo de Klerk, CEO of MRS, at a recent media briefing in Johannesburg. He told the journalists at- tending the briefing that the problem of illegal mining was “spiralling out of control” and was being accompanied by increasing levels of violence.

T he first real encounter the MRS had with the illegal mining sector was a decade ago, when the organisa- tion was asked to recover the body of an illegal miner in the Barberton area by the DMR. Today such interventions

are a regular occurrence for the MRS, which fre- quently finds itself being called out by the DMR to assist with rescue and re- covery operations occa- sioned by illegal mining activities. A recent well pub- licised incident was a t L a n g l a a g t e n e a r Johannesburg, which – unfairly – resulted in the MRS receiving criti- cism in the media for abandoning recovery efforts too early. De Klerk

stressed that MRS teams – composed of volun- teers – took incredible risks, frequently being required to enter highly unsafe areas and often having to squeeze through spaces so small that they had to discard their own protective gear. To buttress his case, he showed the media photos – and even videos – of illegal mining activity. A number of the photos were extremely graphic and showed the bodies of illegal min- ers, some of them killed as a result of hazardous conditions and others ‘executed’ by rival gangs. An extraordinary sequence taken with a spe- cial remotely controlled camera used by MRS showed illegal miners – also known as ‘zama

feature place and have experienced significant degeneration of infrastructure (photo: MRS). Brigadesmen entering abandoned workings. MRS operations frequently take place in mines which no longer have support in

40  MODERN MINING  October 2016