A number of the country's top mining houses are allowed to vaccinate their employees after getting approval from the Department of Health, the Minerals Council of South Africa said on Friday.
Sasol, Thungela Resources, Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater have received approval, while Impala Platinum was the first the first mining firm to carry out vaccinations on 24 May.
The workplace sites will start with administering jabs on employees over 60 years of age, according to the council.
"But since there are few such employees on mining sites, they will then move fully into vaccinating those in the next age band of 50 years and above and then 40 years and above [when] the NDoH’s guideline for workplace vaccination services [enters] Phase 2."
The Department of Health on Friday said vaccine registration for people over 50 years of age will open on 1 July, and the vaccination rollout will start on 15 July.
The Minerals Council, which represents mining companies in the country, emphasised that the sites will operate under the guidelines of the Department of Health and that no private sector companies may acquire vaccines independently.
There were currently 58 occupational health sites in the mining sector that have applied to register as primary vaccination sites in terms of the protocols set up through Business for South Africa. So far, 21 of these sites have already received the required permits from the Department of Health, putting them "one step towards readying the sites for operation".
It is expected that some mine vaccination sites may extend their services to employees' families and others in surrounding communities or provide support to community vaccination programmes, but that could only happen with government's approval.
On Thursday, Sibanye-Stillwater announced that it had been granted approval to administer Covid-19 vaccines at its operations at Marikana in the North West, Libanon and Driefontein in Gauteng, and Beatrix in the Free State.