3,000+ trapped in South African mine collapse

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2007-10-03 07:14pm

More than 3,000 workers are trapped deep underground in a South African gold mine, officials have said.
A pipe broke, severing power cables to the lift and trapping workers at the bottom of a 2.2km (1.4 mile) shaft.

Rescuers are planning to use an adjacent shaft to lift them out, a spokeswoman for the mine's owner, Harmony Gold Mining, said.

The accident happened at about 1000 (0800 GMT), some 80km (50 miles) west of Johannesburg.

The spokeswoman, Amelia Soares, said no-one was injured and that the bottom of the shaft where the miners are trapped is well ventilated.

She said rescuers were in contact with the miners, and planned to begin lifting them very soon.

However, only 75 miners could be lifted out at a time through the adjacent ventilation shaft, she added.

'Poor safety record'

A spokesman for South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said they were extremely concerned for the miners' safety.

"We are, you know, losing hope because... from six o'clock in the morning up until now the miners might actually be suffocating," Lesiba Seshoka told the BBC.

"Because of the fact that there's been a fall of ground so anything can actually happen, you know. We are just crossing our fingers that something good will come out of this."

The Elandsrand mine is in the Witwatersrand Basin, which holds the world's largest gold deposit.

The mines there are among the deepest in the world.

Mr Seshoka said South Africa's mines have a poor safety record.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-10-03 07:15pm

Thats horrible. Still at least in THIS cave in they appear to already have a viable exit for them, albeit a slow one.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2007-10-03 07:19pm

You lack of text, and the sig picture makes that a horrible juxtaposition.

Note your thread title is clear, the exit elevator broke, the mine did not collapse on itself.

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2007-10-03 07:24pm

Mr Bean wrote:You lack of text, and the sig picture makes that a horrible juxtaposition.

Note your thread title is clear, the exit elevator broke, the mine did not collapse on itself.

Sorry, other news are reporting a partial collapse that destroyed the elevator, triggered by a burst water pipe.

Erik von Nein · Post by **Erik von Nein** » 2007-10-03 07:58pm

Well, they're not trapped, in any case, fortunantly for them. Hopefully the concerns about the ventilation don't come to pass.

Oddly enough when I saw the title I thought "Must be one of those really deep mines Africa's got." Sure enough ...

tim31 · Post by **tim31** » 2007-10-03 11:28pm

I'm not usually claustrophobic, but the idea of being trapped over two kilometres below the surface has the walls closing in on me.

Has it been an especially bad period for mine disasters in the last eighteen months, or has the media coverage just been more significant?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2007-10-04 12:27am

Media coverage has simply been on the rise ever since that rescue in Pennsalvinia several years ago. Reminds me of the ‘year of the sharks’ the media had a while back, covering every single shark attack they could, and then as it turned out the year had an unusually low levels of attacks.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2007-10-04 12:48am

Damn, this is a horrible event. Lets hope they can get them out.

Zor

Eris · Post by **Eris** » 2007-10-04 01:01am

An update!

Reuters wrote:By James Macharia

ELANDSRAND MINE, South Africa (Reuters) - Rescue teams brought the first 450 miners out of 3,200 trapped deep underground in a South African gold mine to the surface early on Thursday, mine and union officials said.

Mine owner Harmony Gold said the rescue operation, which brought up the first miners after a 15-hour ordeal, was going smoothly, but the powerful mining union said it suspected negligence was behind the accident that trapped the workers.

Chief Executive Officer Graham Briggs told Reuters he was confident all the miners would be lifted to the surface in a small elevator at the Elandsrand mine near Carletonville, southwest of Johannesburg.

"There have been no injuries or deaths ... It may take as long as 10 hours, the cage (lift) is traveling fairly slowly to avoid risks ... I'm very confident all will come out," Briggs said.

But the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it suspected negligence and Harmony's practice of mining 24 hours per day caused the accident.

"We suspect negligence. Because of continuous operations there is no time to make adequate checks," NUM President Senzeni Zokwana told reporters.

The entire article is three pages, so I just posted the most relevant bit. By the sounds of it, some cautious optimism might be in order. I'm glad to hear that a few of them made it out more or less okay at least.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2007-10-04 05:03pm

I just heard on the news that all of them are saved now.