Rescuers bid to bring out survivors among hundreds trapped in South African mine

Months after South African authorities initially cut off supplies to miners working illegally in an abandoned gold mine, rescuers brought emaciated survivors to the surface on Tuesday.

Hundreds more are still believed to be underground, many of them dead and others too weak to come out on their own.

Police said at least 60 bodies and 92 survivors had been pulled from one of South Africa’s deepest mines since Monday in a red cage-like structure lowered thousands of feet underground.

They are uncertain how many miners remain in the mine, but say it is likely to be in the hundreds.

Another nine bodies were brought out on Friday in a community-led rescue effort, according to a group representing the miners.

Authorities say the surviving miners are able to come out and are refusing, but that has been disputed by rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticised police tactics at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, where more than 100 miners are believed to have died of starvation or dehydration.

The mine near the town of Stilfontein, south-west of Johannesburg, has been the scene of a tense stand-off between police, miners and members of the local community since November, when authorities first launched an operation to try to force the miners out.

Reports said some of them have been underground since July or August last year.

Authorities said the miners are able to come out and are refusing, but that has been disputed by rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticised police tactics in cutting off the miners’ food and water supplies from the surface in an attempt to force them out.

The rights groups said many of the miners are effectively dying of starvation and unable to climb out because the shaft is too steep and the ropes and pulley system they used to enter have been removed.

Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to illegally enter them to try to find leftover deposits.

Large groups of illegal miners often go underground for months to maximise their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on others in their group on the surface to send down more supplies.

Some have escaped from the mine since November, authorities have confirmed, although the exact number is not clear. Police said the miners are afraid of being arrested if they come out.

Rights activists said the only way out is for miners to make a dangerous trek to another shaft, which can take days, and crawl out there.

They said many of the miners are too weak or ill to climb out. The mine is 1.5 miles (2.5km) deep and has multiple shafts, many levels and is a maze of tunnels, and the community mining group said there are numerous groups of miners in various parts of the mine.

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action group, which took authorities to court in December to force them to allow food, water and medicine to be sent down to the miners, released two mobile phone videos which they said were from underground and showed dozens of bodies wrapped in plastic. A spokesman for the group said “a minimum” of 100 miners have died.

The videos purportedly from the depths of the mine were filmed by a man who can be heard saying “This is hunger – people are dying because of hunger” as he records emaciated-looking men sitting on the damp floor of the mine. He adds: “Please help us. Bring us food or take us out.”

South Africa’s minister of police and minister of mineral resources were due to visit the mine on Tuesday, while authorities have come under scrutiny for their tactics.

South African Cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters in November that the government would not help the miners, who are considered “criminals”.

“We are not sending help to criminals,” she said, according to local media. “We are going to smoke them out. They will come out.”

Meanwhile, Interpol said on Tuesday that a major operation targeting illegal gold mining in West Africa has resulted in 200 arrests and the seizure of harmful chemicals, explosives and drugs.

The operation spanned Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea and Senegal, exposing extensive networks behind the illicit practice, which causes widespread environmental damage and poses serious health risks.

Highlighting the grim toll on miners, authorities uncovered large quantities of painkillers used to counter the harsh effects of toxic chemicals employed in gold extraction. Substances like mercury and cyanide, commonly used in small-scale mining, pose severe risks, with prolonged exposure leading to irreversible health damage.

Interpol, the France-based global policing agency with 195 member countries, co-ordinated the operation from July to October 2024 in co-operation with the UK Home Office.

“This operation shows the strength of international co-operation in combating these threats,” the agency’s secretary-general, Valdecy Urquiza, said in a statement.