Testing each and every mine worker for Covid-19 is not feasible for SA’s mining industry, the Minerals Council SA said on Friday.
The comments come after the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) expressed concern over the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the industry, especially in Limpopo where, notably, Impala Platinum’s Marula operations were suspended when 19 coronavirus cases were detected.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), meanwhile, has called on the government to enforce universal testing of mineworkers as the sector operates at 50% capacity under lockdown regulations.
“In SA, as in most of the rest of the world, there are limited testing resources. We need to have equal access to testing for the whole of the population. It would be unfair to everyone else if a big share of the total testing capacity was allocated to one industry,” said Thuthula Balfour, the council’s head of health.
The mining industry employs about 450,000 people and of these 3,035 have been tested.
Balfour said a number of mining companies are looking to boost testing capacity both within their companies and the regions in which they operate. However, “further testing is not the panacea some consider it to be, simply because you get tested at [a particular] point in time. You might be tested today and tomorrow you are exposed to the infection. Clearly it is not possible to test each person every day”.
Instead, the industry sees its greatest interventions in the fight against Covid-19 to be through hygiene and social-distancing measures.
According to the council, which represents most mining companies in SA, 85 mineworkers have tested positive for the virus and one has died, though the employee had been suffering from a comorbidity and had not been at work as a result.
The reported incidence of Covid-19 in mining is significantly lower than in the population as a whole, Balfour said. While SA has recorded 39 cases of infection per 100,000 people, mining has recorded 13. This is despite intensive screening of mineworkers, which should reveal a higher number of cases.
“We think this suggests that all the other protocols — hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE), social-distancing — are adequately being implemented,” said Balfour.
The council said most cases are detected before an affected individual has entered the workplace, and they are then isolated and treated as required. Companies also trace those the infected worker has been in contact with, including those in the community, in collaboration with the department of health.
The industry won’t offer predictions on how many infections and deaths it anticipates, but if extrapolated using national estimates, the industry could experience more than 12,000 infections.
Companies are bracing themselves for these predictions being accurate.
James Wellsted, spokesperson for Sibanye-Stillwater, the largest employer in the industry and the largest in SA after the government, said the company has prepared quarantine facilities for 1,800 people at its platinum operations and 800 at its gold ones, and has secured a further 100 beds at local hospitals for those who may require it.
Balfour said the industry is not naïve. “We know the nature of the disease and that it is bound to continue to spread ... the mining industry is doing its best to play its part in the war against Covid-19.”
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