Trade union Solidarity today welcomed the foreign investment made in the mining company. This comes after a Canadian company, AfroCan Resources Gold Limited (AfroCan), announced that it intended to invest an amount of approximately $11 million over a period of two months, starting 1 June in Vantage that owns both the Lily and Barbrook Mines.

Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis expressed the hope that this investment would lead to the immediate payment of all outstanding wages that are due to Lily mineworkers. Furthermore, it would hopefully mean that all workers who are being retrenched could receive their severance packages immediately. “We are grateful that all the capital projects contained in the business rescue practitioner’s approved rescue plan could now be commenced with thanks to this funding and that the mine could thus be in production within a year again,” Du Plessis said.

“We hope that as provided for in the business plan the bodies of the three missing miners can be retrieved within the next six to eight months,” Du Plessis said.

Du Plessis also congratulated both the management of Vantage Goldfields and the business rescue practitioner on this huge step taken to get the Lily Mine back into production. “We are also appealing to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to grant further funding to enable the Lily Mine to be fully operational soon for the good of the workers and South Africa as a whole.

Issued by Solidarity