76 miners rescued in South Africa, 3 still missing

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

Seventy-six mineworkers have been rescued from a lily gold mine which collapsed Friday morning in Mpumalanga province eastern South Africa, officials have told Anadolu Agency.

“76 miners were underground at the time of the incident. They have all been rescued and treated,” Russel Meiring spokesman for the medical emergency service ER24 told Anadolu Agency.

He said three people who were working in a building on the surface that caved into the ground are still missing.

Earlier the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) had said in a statement that 115 of its members had been trapped underground after main offices at Makonjwaan Gold mine tragically caved in at 8:40 am [0640GMT].

“Those present at the time were 79 and not 115,” Manzini Zungu spokesman for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union clarified to Anadolu Agency by telephone Friday afternoon.

He said it was a concern that mine safety was still a problem in South Africa. ‘‘Accidents are so common. Individual miners die all the time but it’s not reported. This incident got media attention because it was a major tragedy,’’ he explained.

He appealed to the government to pressure owners of unsafe mines to renovate them in a bid to avoid fatalities. “Safety should be a priority. Let workers be a resource and not a cost,’’ he told Anadolu Agency.

The collapsed gold mine belongs to Vantage Goldfields an Australia-based mining company.

South Africa has one of the deepest and oldest mine shafts in the world.