Ace of spades

Contract for South Deep gold mine is an ace-in-the-hole for ECOSERV

NO ONE could have guessed the lows that Senior Occupational Hygienist Gaby Mizan was capable of sinking to. As manager of ECOSERV’s occupational health contract with South Deep gold mine in Vereeniging, Gaby has traveled a boggling 3km below ground level gathering samples.

Gaby is monitoring South Deep for up to 30 chemicals that can be present in the mine – cyanide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, toxic metals, chemical gases like ammonia and manmade mineral fibres, amongst others.

“Gaby is taking a phenomenal amount of samples - about 300 to 400 chemical samples a month,” says Julie Hills, ECOSERV Occupational Health Director. “He fits 20 to 30 personal monitors onto the miners at the start of their shift at 5am and recovers the monitors when the miners come up, which can be any time between 2pm and 9pm.”

South Deep is an important occupational health service inroad for ECOSERV in Gauteng. “It is the occupational department’s biggest short-term contract,” says Julie. “It represents one of the most interesting and widespread groups of chemical monitoring that we have performed for any single client, utilizing many different methods of collection.”

Gaby describes his first descent: “We descended to the bottom level, about 3km beneath the surface, in a crowded ‘cage’. The area underground is huge. The main tunnels are big and well lit but access to the working places at the rock faces is narrow and dark and at times you have to get down on all fours. At one point I was inside a small ‘cave’ near the working face with another man, the ceiling just above our heads, in complete darkness except for the light from our torches. I picked up a stone next to me and when I shined my torch on it I could clearly see the small veins of glittering gold!

“It's hot and at nearly 100% relative humidity one can easily dehydrate. One animal species that thrives in this environment is the cockroach! We walked 6-7km my first day and I was completely exhausted afterwards. I felt like I had completed an army excursion.”

Gaby is working long hours and is on site for three weeks of every month, says Julie. This work has necessitated some rearrangement of the prior work programmes but the whole department has focused on ensuring that both existing contracts and the new work interface without compromising any projects. In the medium term, the intention would be to expand the department in Johannesburg. ECOSERV is exploring various options in this regard.

The hard work has not been lost on South Deep, which has recently renewed the three-month contract for another six months. “South Deep is very impressed with the sampling we have done,” says Julie.