How safe are African miners? While mining is crucial to Africa's economic wellbeing, just how safe are African miners compared to others in the rest of the world? Neil Ford investigates.

The recent miners strike in South Africa and a report by War on Want have thrust the social and environmental consequences of mining activities into the spotlight.

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In common with the oil and gas industry, the mining sector exports raw materials that generate large revenues for many African governments. It also provides employment to many miners, who in turn often support large extended families with their wages.

There is no doubt that the industry has its dangers and that mining work can be unpleasant, but it is vital that decent standards on health, safety and environmental protection are maintained. As well as coal, South Africa mines large quantities of platinum and gold. It already exports 72m tonnes of coal a year (mt/y) and the government hopes that this will be boosted to 116 mt/y by 2020. As examined on page 36 of this issue of African Business, this will require huge investment in additional rail capacity and the expansion of Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT). However, it will also result in the development of new mines, both in the coal industry heartland of Mpumalanga Province and in the emerging Waterberg coal fields, in Limpopo Province. This will provide greater employment for workers from South Africa and other states in the region, so the safety standards applied will affect even more people.

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) held a one day strike in December in protest at poor safety standards in the country's large mining sector.

In October, 3,000 miners were trapped underground at a gold mine owned by Harmony Gold for more than a day and even the company admitted that South African safety standards left much to be desired. The trades union complains that health and safety legislation is inadequate and that even when mining companies break those regulations that are in place, they are seldom prosecuted. In addition, the NUM argues that higher commodity prices have encouraged mining firms to put profit ahead of safety in the rush to boost production.

A total of 199 workers were killed during the course of 2006 and this figure has already been surpassed this year. About 240,000 miners took part in the industrial action, of whom one in six joined a protest march in Johannesburg.

The head of health and safety at the NUM, Erick Gcilitshana, said: "Workers are saying enough is enough. Safety is needed now. The industry made a lot of empty commitments and the fatality rates are forever rising to the stars ... employers need to take a leadership role and invest in safety in the same way they invest in production."

A spokesperson for the Chamber of Mines told the BBC: "We share these concerns with the union. We've agreed with the union that they will go on this work stoppage, in exchange for which the parties will sit down in the next few weeks and months. And we're going to jointly work out action plans and pledges to address the issue of safety." The government has launched an audit into mining, which the NUM hopes will recommend improvements.

Voluntary codes not working

In its recent Fanning the Flames: The role of British mining companies in conflict and the violation of human rights report, the British NGO, War on Want, argued that mining companies were not abiding by their social responsibilities in Africa. Focusing solely on British firms or companies with British links, such as Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti and Vedanta, it concluded that voluntary codes of conduct were not working.

AngloGold Ashanti and Anglo American said that the claims were outdated. The former conceded that cyanide had been spilled twice at Obuasi mine in Ghana in 2005 but argued that the pollution had now been cleaned up. According to War on Want, the Zambian government complained that the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), in which Vedanta Resources has a 51% stake, polluted the Kafue River. Again, a company spokesperson says that the damage has now been rectified at the cost of several million dollars.

In addition, War on Want argues that Ghana is not benefiting from mining exports as much as it should. Using 2003 figures, it concluded that the government received just $47m in taxes and other payments out of the $893m value of mining production that year. This is just 5% of the total, while the NGO estimates that the mining firms spent just 0.5% of that figure on projects in the local communities where they operate.

Nevertheless, allowing private companies to operate major mines does mean that they rather than the governments involved carry any financial risk. At the end of November, AngloGold Ashanti says that it recorded a $33m loss for the year thus far at its Obuasi mine, partly because of the impact of the power shortages that have afflicted Ghana for much of the past 18 months. At 276,007 ounces, production for the third quarter of 2007 was 18.6% below target.

The mine's managing director, John Miller, commented: "Obuasi cannot continue to sustain losses year on year and could be forced to shut down if the losses do not stop. These threaten the long term future of the mine including the viability of the Obuasi Deeps."

He said that the company was working to improve health, safety and environmental standards at the mine and added that it had been closed for 12 weeks in September to enable maintenance work to be carried out.

Health and safety standards are not as high in most African countries as in the industrialised world. Some would argue that they cannot be because of the desperate need for investment and job creation.

Yet better environmental and safety standards are generally the hallmark of well run businesses with contented employees. It is crucial that monitoring within the mining sector is stepped up, to ensure that African workers are not exploited. In common with the oil and gas sector, mining seems prone to a multitude of accusations, so it is vital that the monitoring is as thorough as possible and that transparency is guaranteed, so that well run mines can dispel any criticism.

RELATED ARTICLE: Oil exploration

Vangold turns to Rwanda

Following the announcement that it has signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) for Block 3A in the Eastern Province of Kenya, Vangold Resources Ltd has signed a deal to explore for oil and gas in Rwanda. Vangold had spent a year undertaking preliminary exploration work in the country: the landlocked state has attracted little hydrocarbon interest in the past but it has been reported in East Africa that traces of oil and gas have been found around Lake Kivu.

It is understood that Vangold's permit, nicknamed somewhat unfortunately White Elephant, covers all potential hydrocarbon basins in the country.

The development of the Songo Songo gas to power project in Tanzania reawakened interest in East African offshore but it was only in 2007, with the discovery of oil in the Lake Albert Basin in Uganda, that many oil companies seriously began to consider onshore exploration. It remains to be seen whether the Ugandan find, which was made by a joint venture of Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil and Gas and Canadian company Heritage, will be commercial, but increasing number of independents are looking at East African acreage that has no track record of oil exploration.

Referring to the Ugandan discovery, a Vangold geologist, Francis Karanja, commented: "It is reasonable to conclude that the favourable petroleum systems resulting in the generation and entrapment of the hydrocarbons in Albertine Graben may have also existed in the Kivu Graben."

The Kivu Graben runs along the border between Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and like the Lake Albert Basin to the north, along the border between DR Congo and Uganda, it forms part of the Great Rift Valley. However, while the geology of the two areas may be similar there is no guarantee of success.

The president and chief executive of Vangold, Dal Brynelsen, told Kenyan journalists: "There are indications of possible development of prospective sedimentary basins in Kivu Graben. However, details in terms of actual basin fill thicknesses of the individual basins in the Graben area and their petroleum potential are unknown. Vangold is committed to and prepared to underwrite this risk for the next 18 months."

The Rwandan minister of state for energy and communications, Albert Butare, says that Vangold has the right of first option to negotiate a PSA if any oil or gas reserves are found. The Canadian company plans to invest $1.2m in the new survey. However, the fact that oil companies have not sought to carry out exploration work in Rwanda in the past means that the discovery of commercial quantities of oil is less than likely.

Indeed, President Paul Kagame and the rest of the government are seeking to dampen hopes of a major find. Making commercial use of any discoveries could be more difficult than many may imagine. Export beyond Africa will only be possible if a pipeline can be constructed to a coastal port.

As the case of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline demonstrated, this brings its own problems and is only economically viable if large reserves are discovered. However, even a modest oil find could be used to supply a local refinery to supply much of Central Africa.

Refined petroleum products processed by such a plant should be cheaper than the petrol and diesel currently supplied by the distant east and west coast ports. A refinery would also boost trade in the region and could be sited conveniently to process crude from both Uganda and Rwanda.