BHP Billion announced in the middle of last week that an accident occurred at their Wessels manganese mine in South Africa and, in order to investigate the reasons for this accident in all its aspect, the operations at this manganese mine have been suspended for two weeks.

The Wessels mine had already an accident occurred on the end November of 2010 with injured workers and the accident occurred in this time is the second one. Therefore, in order to investigate thoroughly the reasons for this accident in all its aspect and to take the proper countermeasures for prevention of its recurrence, the operations at the Wessels manganese mine have been suspended

The Wessels mine is one of major manganese mines of BHP Billiton and produced 3,343,000 tonnes of manganese ore in 2010, including the quantity produced at the Mamatwan mine of South Africa in 2010. The Wessels mine is an important mine in South Africa, being able to produce high grade manganese ore.

(Sourced from TEX Report Limited)