SOUTH Africa’s mining sector would be allowed to ramp up to 50% of its productive capacity over the next two weeks as part of the government’s plans to slowly relax COVID-19 related lockdown regulations.
The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on April 9 that a three-week lockdown intended to slow the spread of the virus would be extended until April 30. However, the government said today that idled mines posed a potential safety risk.
“If you leave a mine for a long time, an active mine without activity, it poses the danger of rockfalls and increases the chances of seismicity, so we don’t want that,” said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. “We agreed that mines should start operating at 50%,” she said.
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