Implats to embrace tech to reduce fatalities at Rustenburg mine

South African mining may have recorded its lowest fatality rate in 2024, with SABC News reporting that 30 fatalities have been reported in 2025 so far. Despite this progress, mining companies like Impala Platinum (Implats) are adopting new methods of achieving ‘zero harm’ at their mines.

Image credit: Alpha Perspective on Unsplash

In line with these efforts, the platinum group metals (PGMs) producer is now considering technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to extract without fatalities at its Rustenburg mine in the North West.

“We need to mine without loss of life. We need to be able to mine or extract our minerals safely,” says Implats CEO Moses Motlhageng.

Motlhageng believes AI’s ability to remove human error is the key to improving mine safety.

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“We’ve learned recently that the use of AI can also assist us quite a lot in terms of removing human error in some of the safety systems, safety processes, and systems that we are using.

“And we intend to accelerate that and perhaps invest more to pilot it and be able to see if there’s future potential to be able to extract this over without losing lives,” says Motlhageng.

In 2023, an elevator shaft accident at Implats' Rustenburg mine led to the deaths of 13 miners, 11 on the scene and two in the hospital.

Former Implats CEO Nico Muller described it as the "darkest day" in the company's history.