Hundreds more survivors and dozens more bodies still underground, according to a miners rights group.
Published On 14 Jan 2025
South African rescuers have pulled 36 bodies and 82 survivors from a gold mine in two days of operations, police say, adding that the survivors would face illegal mining and immigration charges.
After nine bodies were recovered on Monday, 27 more were brought out from deep underground on Tuesday, police Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said in a statement.
Police began laying siege to the mine about 150km (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg in the town of Stilfontein in August and cut off food and water for months to force the miners to the surface to arrest them as part of a crackdown on illegal mining.
Hundreds more survivors and dozens more bodies are still 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 survivors and bodies from a mine shaft more than 2km (1.2 miles) underground, will continue for days. Police said they would provide a daily update on numbers.
Typically, illegal mining takes place in mines that have been abandoned by companies because they are no longer commercially viable on a large scale.
Unlice