Read the latest official update on Day 8, here: Day 8 of Lily Mine disaster – Begg pleads for food
As published in Lowvelder printed edition, February 12, 2016
LOW’S CREEK – Day seven. The formerly hopeful mood of desperate relatives gathered at Lily Mine since the cave in on Friday when three people plunged 80 metres into a sinkhole, is turning to despair.
On Wednesday the media was informed that the rescue operation was now in the so-called “red zone”, meaning hope of finding anyone alive would become fainter with each passing hour.
The rescue teams refer to the red zone as the period when it becomes physiologically unlikely that survivors would be able to survive without adequate oxygen, water and other life-sustaining elements.
“I don’t think I need to push your imagination as to what that means in terms of people in containers, and with the issues around that,” said Mr Mike Begg, operations director at the mine.
Yesterday at about 12:30 Begg broke a silence of more than 24 hours on the progress of the rescue operation to save the three miners, who were in a ships’ container when it was swallowed by the massive sinkhole at the mine on Friday.
Also read: Lily Mine: search for trapped workers continue
He would not speculate on whether Ms Pretty Nkambule, Mr Solomon Nyarende and Ms Yvonne Mnisi were still alive and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president Mr Joseph Mathunjwa, said as long as the victims’ families didn’t lose hope, they wouldn’t either.
Begg and his team were very optimistic on Monday morning as there were apparent signs of life echoing from the depths of the mine. Rescue workers could hear knocking sounds from below the debris, seemingly in response to sounds made by the teams working above.
Heat sensors and motion detectors reportedly confirmed that at least one of the trapped miners was still alive.
However, during yesterday’s briefing it was said that rescuers had had no positive contact with the container in the preceding 48 hours.
It has been speculated by some sources in the mining industry that the structure underground that they thought was the container, had in fact proved to be nothing more than huge rocks and other debris. Begg insisted that “all their assumptions up to date have been right,” however.
“At 05:00 this morning we retrieved a tyre from a dump truck. The tyre was lying near the container. It was actually leaning against the foundation on which the container was standing on the surface,” he explained.
Begg added that the rescue operation basically consisted of moving rock through two particular draw points, “where we are fairly sure that in that zone the container is contained. The information comes from ongoing investigation that has continuously zoomed us into this area”.
He warned that rocks were blocking the draw points that held the material above the rescue workers’ heads, making them highly dangerous to operate in.
“Obviously the safety of rescue teams and our staff are of paramount importance.” Begg said that they would continue cautiously with what they were doing.
The CEO of Vantage Goldfields, Mr Mike McChesney, also addressed the media and family members. “It’s been an absolute roller coaster. The plan and strategy that Begg and his team, in consultation with the union and Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has followed, has been the correct one.
“The purpose of today’s meeting was to interrogate that plan and to see what is really going to happen in the next few days. I’d like to confirm to all of you that the plan has been correct and we are very close to recovering the container. Without getting your hopes up too much – and you must understand it’s an extremely dangerous and difficult operation. Dangerous in that the whole hang up is underground.
“The situation has changed quite a lot and that necessitates a slowing down of the removal of the rock on an underground basis. This is very frustrating for all of us.”
A journalist on the scene asked why they had to slow down the operations. McChesney explained, “The rock is hanging up in the old stope where the collapse occurred and we’re drawing it out of two or three draw points.
“It hangs up more than 10 metres high. It’s extremely dangerous to go under there. It could collapse on another person any day now.
“Hanging up means that the rock is interlocked in such a way that it can’t fall. It’s not blasted rock. In a normal operation in mining we’ve blasted, we fragment the rock so that it flows and it breaks up and you can load it out with a big loader.
“This rock has been crushed; it’s a failed pillar, so it’s very hard and enforced to the bottom in some fragmented pieces, but (there are) some huge pieces the size of that truck behind us.” McChesney said they were about 10 metres away from the container and were giving it everything they had to release it by yesterday.
Mr Quintus Sloep of Solidarity, who was also at the scene, said no indications were given as to when they might call the rescue mission off. “Also, it is too soon to tell whether the mine might be closed permanently after this.”
He said that 44 miners were killed in mining-related incidents last year, and 10 had already died since the beginning of 2016.
Meanwhile, McChesney described the Lily Mine disaster as a “unique event in South African mining”, saying, “In my nearly 40 years in the industry, I’ve never encountered anything like this. And I must tell you it has been an absolute tragedy for all of us.
“It’s a tragedy for the families of those that are still missing. But it’s also been a unique experience for me in that the working relationship we have with the DMR and the union has never been better.
“The supportive nature that we have, and the cooperation, is a fantastic way to deal with a very difficult situation and I’d like to thank the DMR, thank Mr Mathunjwa and the AMCU union, as well as the broader community here in the Lowveld, who’ve been unwavering in their support for this catastrophe.”
