Shortly after announcing the death of a worker at a South African mine site, Vancouver-based Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (TSX:PTM) has announced that it has been required to stop operations at the site.
This morning, the Vancouver-based company announced that a worker has died at PTM’s MBJLV Project 1 mine site in South Africa.
The company said that Moshiko Molepo, an employee of a surface earth works contractor, was involved in an “incident on surface” at the site and died while under medical care.
“It is reported that a truck made contact with the employee,” the company said in a statement. “The relevant authorities have been contacted and senior management of the company and the contractor are on site and are investigating.”
Platinum Group said it’s providing “full co-operation” with the investigation and expressed its “deepest condolences” to Molepo’s family, friends and co-workers.
Less than three hours after the first release, Platinum Group announced that it had received a notice under South Africa’s Mine Health and Safety Act requiring it to stop operations and “comply with various instructions.”
The company said that “as a result all work at the…project site has stopped with immediate effect,” until the company complies with the instructions in the notice and the principal inspector of mines lifts it.
The company said that safety has been the company’s “number one priority” since construction started on the project. It said it will thoroughly investigate the incident “with the objectives of finding the causes of the incident and improving safety going forward.”
