“106 miners rescued in two days, efforts to rescue more miners on”
Johannesburg: The authorities in South Africa have rescued around 60 dead bodies at an abandoned gold mine in the last two days, reports said.
In a statement South Africa Police Service (SAPS) shared that a total of 106 illegal miners and 51 bodies were brought to the surface on the second day of rescue operation.
The recovery of 51 dead bodies have increased the death toll to 60 as nine bodies were recovered on the first day of rescue operations at the old Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein, North West Province.
“On day two of operations, a total of 106 alive illegal miners were retrieved and arrested for illegal mining; 51 were certified dead.”
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who visited the area on Tuesday, said the operations are estimated to continue for about 10 days.
In the statement, Athlenda Mathe, national spokesperson for the SAPS, confirmed that those rescued have since been arrested. Among those arrested on Tuesday are 67 from Mozambique, 26 from Lesotho, and 11 from Zimbabwe, in addition to two South African nationals.
Mathe said police have confiscated materials, including more than 640 kg of gold-bearing material and 6.2 kg of refined gold, as well as explosives, firearms, and cash amounting to 52.49 million rand (about 2.78 million US dollars) from the illegal miners since December 2023, when authorities started operations against illegal mining.
The situation at disused mine shafts in Stilfontein has been developing since August 2024, when small groups of illegal miners began emerging from the shafts. Since then, over 1,576 illegal miners have come to the surface and been arrested, the majority of whom are foreign nationals from neighboring countries, according to the police statement.