New Lily Mine owner is hiring in March 2019

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The man who bought the troubled Barberton gold mine in which three workers remain trapped underground is reportedly hiring in March 2019.
HOPE: The new owner of the Lily Mine, Fred Arendse, says he is reopening the mine. PICTURE BY Mining Listings.

This week marked exactly 3 years since the horrific disaster.


The man who bought the troubled Barberton gold mine is reportedly hiring in March 2019.

Fred Arendse who owns the Siyakhula Sonke Empowerment Corporation (SSC) that took over Lily Mine in Mpumalanga last year said operations are going to resume quite soon.

Other people have already been recruited for employment and the process will continue in March.

Arendse’s company bought Vantage Goldfields, Lily Mine’s former owners, late last year through a R190 million loan from the Industrial Development Corporations. The loan is part of a black empowerment programme.

In December 2018, the transfer of Lily Mine from Vantage Goldfields to Siyakhula Sonke’s subsidiary Flaming Silver Trading was concluded.

“There needs to be a dawn of a new Vantage Gold mine that will benefit the people for the better,” said Arendse.

On 5 February 2016, Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyarende were trapped underground when the container in which they were working was swallowed by earth during the collapse of a shaft. Their bodies remain underground.

Since then the mine has closed, with hundreds of workers losing jobs.

Arendse said operations would resume soon and should occur to benefit the community.

Arendse spent a long time been with Anglo American before starting his own mining company 13 years ago.

Government said it supports all efforts meant to restart operations at the mine and the retrieving of the three workers’ bodies.

“The department supports all efforts to ensure the new owners are able to resume operations and find the container, so their families and loved ones can have closure,” the mineral resources department said in a statement.

(edited by ZK)

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