Attempts to rescue Lily Mine falter on complexities
Two mines are in business rescue, but attempts to find a buyer and funding seem to make little headway
Few people in the Mpumalanga town of Barberton believe that a third attempt to buy and resuscitate the collapsed Lily Mine will come to fruition. On February 5 2015, the struggling gold mine came to national attention. Three employees — Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyirenda — were working in a container on the surface when the main crown pillar supporting access to the mine collapsed. The container — used as a lamp room — plunged into the deep sinkhole and was buried under tonnes of rock. All the other people working in the mine were saved, but after two weeks and two more ground collapses, attempts to rescue the three had to be abandoned. It is not known whether they died at once or survived and were hoping for help days after the collapse. The mine attracted media attention and visits from politicians such as former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane and his deputy, Godfrey Oliphant, for months after the disaster. Zwane and Oliphant made pledges including that...
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