{"id":12766,"date":"2012-07-26T01:31:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T23:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/s-african-gold-firm-starves-out-illegal-miners\/"},"modified":"2012-07-26T01:31:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-25T23:31:51","slug":"s-african-gold-firm-starves-out-illegal-miners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-african-gold-firm-starves-out-illegal-miners\/","title":{"rendered":"S.African gold firm "starves out" illegal miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* Illegal miners stay underground for months<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Food ban targets supply line for illegal miners<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Cropley<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

TWO KM BENEATH WELKOM, South Africa, July 25 (Reuters) – One
\nof South Africa’s biggest gold firms has taken the drastic step
\nof banning all food underground to cut supply lines to gangs of
\nillegal miners used to staying deep in the mines for months on
\nend, threatening lives and official production.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

With gold mining around Welkom, 200 km (130 miles) south of
\nJohannesburg, dating back to the 1930s, the bedrock is
\ncriss-crossed by a myriad network of tunnels that provide
\nperfect cover and multiple entry points for illegal miners.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Bosses of Harmony Gold’s 2.4 km deep Phakisa mine –
\none of the world’s deepest – have tried blocking up old shafts
\nand installing stadium-style turnstiles at the top of the main
\nshaft to stop imposters slipping through.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In January this year, they tightened the screw by imposing a
\ntotal ban on food to prevent official miners bringing in
\nsupplies to sell or give to their unofficial counterparts.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“There are two things you need to survive underground: food
\nand water. You can always get water down a mine but the food ban
\nhas made a real difference,” Harmony chief executive Graham
\nBriggs told Reuters this week during a mine visit.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Unions agreed to the ban – as long as it was accompanied by
\na free meal at the end of a shift – even though it means teams
\nof men will consume nothing but water during an eight-hour shift
\npounding at the gold-bearing rock in sweltering heat.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* Illegal miners stay underground for months * Food ban targets supply line for illegal miners By Ed Cropley TWO KM BENEATH WELKOM, South Africa, July 25 (Reuters) – One of South Africa’s biggest gold firms has taken the drastic step of banning all food underground to cut supply lines to gangs of illegal miners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}