Three killed in South Africa mine collapse

Three miners were killed and one injured after a shaft collapsed in a gold mine in South Africa today.

The accident happened just before 3am Irish time around 9,800ft below the surface at Gold Fields Ltd’s Kloof Gold Mine, near Johannesburg, the South African Press Association reported.

Last year 264 workers died in South Africa’s mines, with most of the deaths coming in gold and platinum mines.

The Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate said earlier this year that 146 gold miners were killed and 58 platinum miners died on the job in 2003.

The number of gold mine deaths dropped from the year before, when 207 workers were killed.

Nearly half the deaths were caused by falls.

The inspectorate said accident and fatality figures for South Africa’s coal and diamond mining industries were on par with international norms, but gold and platinum were unacceptably high.