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afrol News / AENS, 1 July - Steelport's dead and maimed vanadium miners have finally been vindicated in a government report that proves they were poisoned by massive over-exposure to toxic chemicals. Their appeals for medical and financial assistance from the mine’s multi-national Swiss owners, Xstrata, were previously dismissed as greed by mine management. A Mineral & Energy Affairs department investigation found this week, however, that workers at the Vantech Mine in Steelpoort had been exposed to "high levels of vanadium pentoxide" due to inadequate safety and engineering controls. The report, which is still confidential and is being studied by lawyers for the National Union of Mineworkers and Xstrata, also warns that employees have inadequate training about the hazards of working with vanadium. [We have also identified] "inadequate engineering controls and inadequacies in the occupational hygiene monitoring and measurement programme," government’s chief inspector of mines, May Hermanus, said on Friday. The government probe follows growing complaints from retrenched and disabled workers, the widows of miners who died and NUM about safety standards at the mine. Xstrata has repeatedly insisted there is no danger at Vantech and has instead publicly accused vanadium victims of being ungrateful opportunists who are using unrelated diseases to try and claim money from the transnational company. Xstrata officials have barred workers, relatives, union officials and the media from accessing medical and safety records at the mine, and have also barred investigators from entering the mine complex. Extracts from an internal and still secret Xstrata report on the links between vanadium and occupational asthma sparked media investigations and finally convinced Mineral & Energy Affair to investigate the mine. The report, compiled by researchers at Columbus Stainless, University of Pretoria and Pretoria Academic hospital, found that some workers were exposed to 50 times the maximum legal limit of toxic chemicals such as vanadium pentoxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia. The researchers noted some workers displayed symptoms of poisoning after spending as little as eight hours in the mine, and concluded that the unusually high levels of occupational asthma among workers were caused by over-exposure to chemicals. Xstrata South Africa’s vanadium division managing director Wynand Meyjes said: "we do not agree with all aspects of the report, but we are happy with the recommendations made in the report and will implement them as soon as we can. It is important to note that Xstrata will continue its commitment to providing a safe working environment for its employees." NUM’s attorney, Richard Spoor, had still not received a copy of the report on Friday and was unable to comment. Hermanus stressed that government had decided not to release its findings publicly until Xstrata and NUM had studied it in an attempt to contain "the danger of heightening tensions" at the mine. - The inspectorate’s priority at this stage is to ensure that a programme aimed at rectifying conditions at Vantech is developed and implemented as a matter of urgency, Hermanus said. NUM has meanwhile re-emphasised its call for public hearings on the issue so that as many poisoned workers as possible can present their cases to investigators. Hermanus stressed that Xstrata only took control of Vantech in 1999 and that many of the shortcomings predated their ownership. Vantech was owned by Rand Mines until 1991, when it was purchased by Cheers Investments and finally sold to Xstrata in 1998.
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