An earth tremor measuring a preliminary five on the Richter scale hit the South African mining town of Stilfontein on March 9 forcing the nearby Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) mine to evacuate workers.

Spokesperson for mine owners, Anglo American, Andries van Zyl said that while the company was aware of the seismic event, it appeared that its operations had not been affected. By early afternoon emergency services had received a report of only one minor injury, he said.

Durban Roodepoort Deep spokesperson Ilja Graulicj said there had been four aftershocks.

The tremor's epicentre was believed to be around Klerksdorp, said Ian Saunders, project leader of the SA National Seismograph Network at the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria. South Africa is an aseismic country (not prone to earthquakes).

It was not yet known whether the Klerksdorp quake was related to mining or due to natural causes.

09 March 2005