- The inquest into the Lily Mine tragedy has heard evidence that mining the crown pillar could have led to three workers being trapped underground.
- A miner testified that he was ordered to blast and drill the crown pillar above the lamp room.
- Dean Martin Ackerman claimed his captain gave him instructions to drill near and on the crown pillar.
A former Lily Mine driller has claimed that "negligence" could have caused the tragic incident that has left his three colleagues trapped underground for nearly six years.
Dean Martin Ackerman joined the gold mine situated near Barberton, Mpumalanga, in October 2011 and was with it until 2016 when the mine was closed.
Lily Mine stopped its operations after the container Pretty Nkambule, Solomon Nyirenda and Yvonne Mnisi were working in fell down a sinkhole on 5 February 2016.
The three are presumed dead.
At the time of the incident, Ackerman worked as a junior blaster and driller at the mine.
Following the tragic incident, Ackerman made two statements - one to the Department of Mineral Resources, the other to the police.
Testifying on Friday in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court where the inquest inquiry into the tragedy was being heard, Ackerman said a crown pillar they used to drill through was below the lamp room in which the three were working on that fateful day.
"The crown pillar was at level 4. The head of the department instructed us to break down the wall and as miners, we executed that. Mining under the crown pillar resulted in the collapse of the mine.
"As we were digging under the crown pillar, it (the crown pillar) got smaller and smaller. The crown pillar was 18m thick. When we ran out of the reef, we planned and drilled more," he said.
Ackerman testified:
READ | Lily Mine: Witness pleads for mine to operate again so that missing colleagues can be retrieved
"I was the operator, and he (the captain) was the boss. When I joined the mine, I received training. I didn't have experience in rock drilling.
"We mined out level 4 and put a wall to prevent other miners from entering. After mining different levels, we went back to level 4, brought down the wall, and continued mining. We repeated the same routine about three times.
"The drilling into the crown pillar was on the right-hand side of the ventilation shaft. We were drilling upward into the crown pillar. Sometimes we were drilling downward. The next day we drilled the top side," said Ackerman.
It is alleged that after some time, the crown pillar became weak and later collapsed underground, taking with it the lamp room.
On that day, he said, he was on duty and went down to help find the missing workers after the collapse.
Ackerman also testified that sometime in 2011 while reporting for duty, he saw three illegal miners being arrested.
The illegal miners were caught underground and taken to the surface, he said.
READ | Lily Mine tragedy inquest: My daughter is alive inside the container - father
After Ackerman's testimony, the mine's lawyer, advocate Andre Bezuidenhout, asked him to withdraw his evidence because it was "untruthful".
Bezuidenhout said:
Ackerman stood by his testimony and emphasised that they drilled upward on the crown pillar.
The hearing continues.
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