AFTER THE BELL: Taming the torrent — global standard to prevent deadly mine mud rushes is overdue

It is a monstrous thing to behold – a surge of ore, mud and water that engulfs and smothers all in its path as it plunges down the depths.In the wake of recent deadly mine mush accidents in Indonesia and at the Ekapa diamond mine in South Africa, the issue has been raised on the radar screens of investors and insurers, and one top expert is calling for national or global guidelines to be put in place.This is an initiative which must be applauded and is long overdue as these catastrophic events – like so many other mining hazards – are preventable. And SA, with its vastly improving mine safety record and wealth of technical expertise, is well placed to take the lead on this front. “Water inflows and mud events are predictable; using modern automated monitoring methods combined with a better understanding of the role of water, risk can be mitigated. There is now an opportunity to create an international standard for the prevention of inflows and mud rushes,” Dr Kym Morton, a leading expert on the issue, wrote in a technical note in the Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.“The work done in southern Africa on combatting mud rushes and inflows can be expanded and developed using modern monitoring techniques to increase safety in mining.”Plenty of precedentsThere are plenty of precedents. As Morton notes: “It is a truism that safety in mining advances on the graves of the fallen. Every time there is a major disaster, mine safety and regulations are improved to save lives.” For example, falls of ground/rockfalls – literally being crushed by a rock falling on top of you – have long been the leading cause of accidental deaths in SA’s deep and dangerous mines.That focused the attention of the industry at the CEO level and saw the rollout of protective overhead netting and other initiatives to prevent such fatalities. And the number of such deaths in SA’s mines fell from 33 in 2017 to six in 2022, though there has been a concerning spike since.Still, the overall trend in South African mining has been significant improvement. In 2025, a record low of 41 miners were killed on the job here, a far cry from the apartheid-era carnage of the 1980s when the annual death toll reached as high as 800.On the global stage, investors drove the development of the Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management, an initiative funded and crafted by the International Council on Mining and Metals.This came in the wake the collapse of Vale’s iron ore tailings facility at Brumadinho, Brazil, on 25 January 2019 that killed 270 people. These standards were long overdue, and the same can be said about mud rush prevention. And investors are now drilling down into the issue.The Church of England’s Pension Board and the Swedish National Pension Funds’ Council on Ethics were key proponents of the Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management, bringing on board over 100 institutional investors with over $25-trillion in assets under management.And the Church of England is examining the issue of mud rushes to see if a similar model can be applied.“We’re at the stage of discovery, of sort of understanding the depth of the issue to identify what good practice exists with a view to make a judgement as to whether we need to define a standard in the way that we have with the Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management,” Adam Matthews, the Chief Responsible Investment Officer for the Church of England Pensions Board, told me. “My sense is that there is quite clearly an issue here, and it’s material to investors.”This is how such initiatives get rolling. A mud rush is driven by gravity, and measures to enhance mine safety are driven by the laws of economic gravity once investors take note of the gravity of the situation – and the fact that such disasters are preventable.SA’s Minerals Council is also concerned about the issue and is having a “Day of Learning” about mud rushes next month, which will feature presentations and discussions from experts on the subject.Global standard“Water with mud rushes is clearly the common denominator, so drainage and monitoring of hydrology are critical. From our discussions with Kym Morton, we believe it may be time for a global standard on mud rushes,” Dushendra Naidoo, Head of Safety and Sustainable Development at the Minerals Council, told me.The International Council on Mining and Metals has also been exploring the issue.Like other mining calamities, mud rushes such as the one that killed five people at the Ekapa mine and the 1990 incident at Vaal Reefs gold mine that killed 21 are not “Acts of God” – preventive measures such as water monitoring, drainage and pumping can be taken.It’s high time for standards or guidelines to prevent miners from perishing in the horrifying flow of a mud rush. DM