739 Poloko Tau underground the Karee 3 shaft at Lonmin mine in Marikane near Brits in North West. 090413 739 Poloko Tau underground the Karee 3 shaft at Lonmin mine in Marikane near Brits in North West. 090413
Having covered the Lonmin miners’ wage strike in Marikana, Poloko Tau wanted to experience “real mining”.
North West - Salty sweat trickles down from underneath my hard-hat. A pulsating quiver resonates through my entire body as my hands grip tightly onto a thunderous drill machine.
Drops of water squirt out of the drilling hole and drip down my face and goggles. I am cramped uncomfortably in a squatting position almost over the giant drill machine.
I can’t straighten up without my hard-hat hitting the rock ceiling in this confined working space.
Getting here wasn’t an easy exercise. The adventure began on ground level, when I donned a white overall with reflector strips.
I then put on a hard-hat with a lamp fitted to it and connected to a weighty battery strapped around my waist. My feet went into steel-toe boots.
Then came the goggles, gloves and ear plugs, all hung on standby around my neck.
I was dressed like a real miner.
Moments later, I put on my bravest face and maintained my calm as I entered the lift cage and headed down.
We plunged into the dark shaft, engulfed by loud hissing sounds.
A few minutes later, we came to a halt nearly a kilometre below the surface.
Then the steel doors parted and we walked out into the 20th level at Lonmin’s Karee 3 shaft, just outside Rustenburg in North West.
As I started noticing a network of railway tracks, I remembered a stern warning received during the safety induction: “Steer clear of the rail track, walk on the side.”
Small locomotives underground are used to move platinum group metal-bearing ore from work sections to an area where it will be conveyed to the surface for processing.
Having covered the Lonmin miners’ wage strike in Marikana last year, I was burning with anticipation at getting to a place where real mining was happening.
The strike was started by rock drill operators who complained that they were getting “shameful” salaries that were nothing near the equivalent compensation for the gruelling work they did in often dangerous circumstances.
The rock drill operators argued that they were the ones at the core of the mining process. They drill holes through which explosives will be inserted for rock blasting.
Each rock drill operator can drill more than 20 holes in a section prepared for blasting in newly developed channels.
While underground, I came across a big steel machine called “Boesman”, which is a loader that scoops the rocks and flips them over its body to the back in a clearing process.
A while later, as we walked through a network of dark alleyways, we arrived at a lift-chair station. There, we were briefed on how to hop onto a moving small seat hoisted from a mechanism overhead, grasp onto a steel bar connecting the seat to the top, and sit in a bicycle-riding position.
Chairlifts are used to convey miners down or up an alley – to or from distant areas.
After climbing up some rough stepladders, through some dark holes we arrived at a place where men were at work.
Some were sitting with rocks hanging just above their heads while others were crouching. With sweat dripping down their faces amid the deafening sound of their drills, these men seemed oblivious to those who passed by.
I crawled on my knees, protected by knee pads, to another working area where I took the controls of a drill.
A minute was all I could take behind the heavy, body-juddering machine – a minute during which my mind processed a ton of thoughts.
My mind was flooded mainly with memories of last year’s strike in Marikana. I couldn’t help but hear the voices of the rock drill operators who ran out of words as they tried their best to explain the harsh working conditions of their demanding job.
Three days after my underground visit, my body was still aching. Yet for so many, this is a daily job.
This experience brings me closer to what the miners were thinking – when they demanded that their pay be raised from about R5 000 to R12 500 – in the days leading to August 16 last year.
This is the toughest job I could ever imagine, and the miners should get decent salaries for it.
poloko.tau@inl.co.za
The Star
