{"id":9146,"date":"2012-03-21T03:21:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T01:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/exclusive-s-africa-gold-firms-to-face-silicosis-class-action\/"},"modified":"2012-03-21T03:21:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T01:21:45","slug":"exclusive-s-africa-gold-firms-to-face-silicosis-class-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/exclusive-s-africa-gold-firms-to-face-silicosis-class-action\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE-S.Africa gold firms to face silicosis class action"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

(For a Special Report on silicosis in South Africa, click on link.reuters.com\/duv27s<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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

By Ed Cropley<\/p>\n

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

JOHANNESBURG, March 20<\/span> (Reuters) – A South African lawyer
\nsaid on Tuesday he was preparing a class action lawsuit against
\nleading gold mining firms on behalf of thousands of former
\nminers who say they contracted silicosis, a debilitating lung
\ndisease, through negligent health and safety.<\/p>\n

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

Attorney Richard Spoor, whose legal battle against a South
\nAfrican asbestos-mining company led to a $100 million settlement
\nin 2003, said he would file class action papers with the High
\nCourt in Johannesburg “within the next few months”.<\/p>\n

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

“We have a very important meeting with our advocates on
\nMonday to thrash out the final form of the application,” Spoor
\ntold Reuters.<\/p>\n

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

He said he had so far signed up 6,876 plaintiffs from South
\nAfrica and Lesotho, the landlocked kingdom that has provided
\nhundreds of thousands of migrant workers to South Africa’s gold
\nmines over the last century.<\/p>\n

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

The principal targets of the suit would be AngloGold Ashanti
\n, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold – South
\nAfrica’s three biggest gold miners – and minor producer DRD Gold
\n, Spoor said.<\/p>\n

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

Frans Barker, chief operating officer of the Chamber of
\nMines and the main industry spokesman on silicosis, declined
\nspecific comment.<\/p>\n

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

“We’re continuing with our work on these issues,
\nirrespective of the class action. We wouldn’t like to respond to
\nthe class action itself because that depends very much on the
\nmerit of specific cases,” he said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

(For a Special Report on silicosis in South Africa, click on link.reuters.com\/duv27s) By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG, March 20 (Reuters) – A South African lawyer said on Tuesday he was preparing a class action lawsuit against leading gold mining firms on behalf of thousands of former miners who say they contracted silicosis, a debilitating lung disease, […]<\/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-9146","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\/9146","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=9146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}