JOHANNESBURG, April 21 (Reuters) – Two men were killed
overnight in a fight involving suspected illegal miners at
Harmony Gold’s Tshepong mine in South Africa’s Free
State province, a police spokesman said on Saturday.
Harmony spokeswoman Marian can der Walt said the incident
had not halted operations at the mine, the biggest earner of the
company that is the country’s third largest gold producer.
Company data showed Tshepong produced 207,950 ounces of gold
in the 2011 financial year.
“We discovered two male bodies with stab wounds this morning
at Tshepong mine in Welkom,” police spokesman Stephen Thakeng
said. “It seems they were killed last night in a fight among
suspected illegal miners.”
The incident was likely to add to growing concern about the
presence of unlicensed miners in the mines of South Africa, the
continent’s biggest gold and platinum producer.
Up to 20 illegal miners were killed last month by a rock
fall at an abandoned mine elsewhere in South Africa.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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