Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter on Friday called for urgent intervention by the Ministers of Police and Mineral Resources and Energy to investigate the violent assaults by heavily armed intruders on mining company targets, especially smelt houses.
The industry has for years struggled with illegal miners, but over the past year, attacks by organised syndicates on plants to steal concentrate or smelted gold have increased sharply.
Baxter said that, in the past year, the gold industry had suffered nine significant attacks, in which employees and security personnel had been held hostage and assaulted. Two people have been murdered in two attacks, the most recent being an attack at Harmony Gold’s Kalgold plant on Friday morning.