Gold Fields has worst record in SAfrica mine deaths

By Gugulakhe Lourie

JOHANNESBURG, July 3 (Reuters) - Gold Fields (GFIJ.J) has the worst mine death record in South Africa so far this year, with about half of a total of 85 deaths in the country's mines occurring at the group's operations, a senior official said.

Deaths in South African mines fell 22 percent to 85 in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, Thabo Gazi, the chief inspector of mines at the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) told Reuters on Thursday.

"On Monday this week, we were standing on 85 deaths in comparison to 109 last year, same period. Almost around 50 percent of those deaths are coming from one group - Gold Fields," Gazi said on the sidelines of a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) safety meeting.

Gazi said a new Mine Health and Safety Amendment bill, still to be debated in parliament, would seek to improve safety in mines, and impose bigger fines for safety offenders.

He hoped the law would come into force by the year end.

Gold Fields, the world's fourth biggest gold producer, suffered its latest accident last week when two workers were killed at its key Kloof mine, southwest of Johannesburg. The group lost a total of 70 kg (2,471 ounces) of gold after shutting one of its shafts where the two died after a tremor.

The company has had a string of mishaps this year. It briefly stopped development work at its big South Deep gold mine in early May after nine workers were killed after the cage in which they were riding hurtled down a shaft.

After the incident, Gold Field's Chief Executive Officer, Nick Holland said safety at its mines was the group's top priority. At a visit to Kloof mine this week, Holland reiterated that his company would not mine unless it was safe to do so, and the firm was conducting an external safety audit for the mines.

Daniel Thole, a spokesman for Gold Fields said: "If we can't mine safely, we won't mine at all."

South Africa, a major producer of gold and the world's biggest source of platinum, suffered more deaths in mines last year than the year before. The government reacted by shutting down mines whenever the deaths occurred, hurting mining output.

More output was lost after the 320,000-strong NUM staged a one-day strike last December to force miners to focus on safety.

The government said mineworker deaths rose 11 percent last year to 221 from 2006, the first jump since 2002, as mine workers were killed by rockfalls, explosions or buried underground during earth tremors in a country with the world's deepest gold mines, most of which are labour intensive.

Frans Baleni, NUM's general secretary, said the union would decide later this year if to call another safety strike.

"If there are no improvements in mines in terms of safety by December, we may consider a strike," he told Reuters. (Writing by James Macharia)