60 bodies pulled from S. Africa mine
JOHANNESBURG—South African authorities have pulled at least 60 bodies from the shaft of a closed gold mine more than 2 kilometers underground where an unknown number of men are still feared trapped, following a siege in a crackdown on illegal mining.
The siege, which began in August at the mine in the town of Stilfontein, about 150 km from Johannesburg, cut off food and water supplies for months in an attempt to force the miners to the surface so that they could be arrested.
On Monday, authorities used a metal cage to begin recovering men and bodies from the shaft, in an operation expected to run for days.
“We don’t know exactly how many people are remaining there,” South African police minister Senzo Mchunu told broadcaster eNCA. “We are focusing on getting them, assisting them out.”
It was difficult to say when all the miners would be brought up, he said, adding, “When each one of the miners who are underground went there, no one was counting.”
In a statement, police said 51 bodies had been retrieved by Tuesday night, following nine the previous day.
Survivors arrested
The 106 survivors pulled from the mine on Tuesday were arrested for illegal mining, swelling the figure of 26 a day earlier, they added.
For decades, South Africa’s precious metals industry has battled illegal mining, which costs the government and industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties, a mining industry body estimates.
Typically, it is centered on mines abandoned by companies as they are no longer commercially viable on a large scale. Unlicensed miners, known locally for taking a chance, go in to extract whatever may be left.
Hundreds more men and dozens more bodies are still trapped underground, according to a miners’ rights group that issued footage on Monday showing corpses and skeletal survivors in the mine.
Rescue operations, which involve the use of a metal cage to recover men and bodies from a mine shaft more than 2 km underground, will continue for days, with police saying they would provide a daily update on numbers.
A Reuters team at the site, about 150 km from Johannesburg in the town of Stilfontein, saw rescuers carrying one man on a stretcher on Tuesday. A group of other men, one of them emaciated, sat on the ground surrounded by uniformed police officers and paramedics.
Typically, illegal mining takes place in mines that have been abandoned by companies because they are no longer commercially viable on a large scale. Unlicensed miners, often immigrants from other African countries, go in to extract whatever is left.
‘War on economy’
The South African government has said the siege of the Stilfontein mine was necessary to fight illegal mining, which mining minister Gwede Mantashe described as “a war on the economy.” He estimated that the illicit precious metals trade was worth 60 billion rand ($3.17 billion) last year.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said in November: “We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out.”
But a court said in December that volunteers should be allowed to send down supplies to the trapped men, and another ruling last week ordered the state to launch a rescue operation, which began on Monday.
“All 82 that have been arrested are facing illegal mining, trespassing and contravention of the Immigration Act charges,” police said in a statement, referring to all those pulled out alive on Monday and Tuesday.
‘Alive or dead?’
The government crackdown, part of an operation called “Close the hole,” has drawn criticism from human rights organizations and local residents.
A 26-year-old woman living near Stilfontein, who gave her name as Matumelo, said her husband had gone down the mine in June when she was pregnant. She last received a letter from him in August and has since given birth.
“My husband, is he alive or dead?” she said.
