It is acting on behalf of  shareholders seeking to recover losses suffered by a sharp fall in the gold producer’s share price.

Shares in Sibanye Stillwater plunged after a spate of deaths at its mines.

There have been 21 fatalities at the company’s mines this year – that is almost half the number of miners killed in  South Africa.

The death toll in country’s mining industry  in 2017 was  88.

Bernstein Liebhard said in a statement their suit would deal with what they call misleading statements made by the precious metals producer.

Accidents that have cast a shadow over the company’s operations include  950 miners  trapped underground for 33 hours because of a power outage at the Beatrix mine in the Free State in January

The National Union of Mineworkers  says company should have had contingency plans to deal with power cuts and urged workers to refuse to work in dangerous conditions.

A few days later, two mineworkers died in a rockfall at Sibanye’s Kloof mine on the West Rand.

Less than a week later another miner died at the company’s Driefontein mine west of Johannesburg

Another  worker died at the Khuseleka mine in Rustenburg.

Last month Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe describes as a disaster the death seven workers in a seismic event in Driefontiein.

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