Petra Diamonds says a wall collapsed at Cullianan mine

An employee measures a rough diamond at the polishing affiliate of Russian diamond producer Alrosa in Moscow. A wall collapsed at Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine, east of Pretoria following a thunderstorm, the company said on Wednesday.

RUSTENBURG – A wall collapsed at Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine, east of  Pretoria following a thunderstorm, the company said on Wednesday.

A sidewall of the open pit collapsed on Saturday and on Monday, no one was injured in the incident, the company said in a statement.

Mining in the open pit at Cullinan was discontinued more than 50 years ago and all current mining operations are underground. 

“The scaling was along geological structures with approximately 3 million tonnes of material falling into the open pit. The scaling resulted in a large plume of dust being generated, having some effect on the local community and entering the underground areas ” the company said.

“As a precautionary measure, all employees were evacuated, while an underground team of ventilation specialists and proto team members carried out an underground inspection and declared the mine safe, with the result that underground mining resumed later on the evening of Monday 28 October. Community members were also engaged to assess the impact.

Source: iol.co.za