Anglo American SA and AngloGold Ashanti have reached an agreement to compensate nearly 4,400 silicosis claims brought against the companies for a total R464m, which will be put into an independent trust to distribute compensation.

The lawyers representing 4,365 claimants had sued the South African arm of Anglo American and former subsidiary AngloGold for dust-related lung illnesses, including silicosis and silico-tuberculosis, contracted while working on the companies' mines. The claims were first lodged in 2012...

"AngloGold Ashanti believes that agreeing settlement terms is in the best interests of the claimants, their families, and the company," AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan said...

Without an admission of liability, both companies said they would fund up to R464m that would be paid into the independent trust to be called Q(h)ukeka, within two weeks of the trust's bank account being set up...

The claimants come from the Eastern Cape, Lesotho and the Free State, and have an average age of 61...