Trapped South African gold miners found dead

The bodies of four gold miners, trapped more than 1,300m underground, were recovered from the Tau Lekoa Mine in northeastern South Africa on Sunday. 

The miners initially became trapped on Friday, when a tremor caused a rock fall at the mine near the town of Orkney. Over 100 people were involved in the rescue attempt, but progress was slowed by the amount of rubble blocking the rescuers’ path, as well as fears over additional collapses. One miner was rescued on Friday but had sustained serious injuries. The rescue team say they lost contact with the remaining four men early on Saturday. 

Upon losing contact with the men, the final words heard by the rescuers were “We are suffocating, please, bring us some oxygen”. Local media reported that the miners were between 32 and 47 years old. 

The Tau Lekoa Mine is operated by South African corporation Village Main Reef. Following the collapse, the company was strongly criticised by the National Union of Miners (NUM), who said in a statement that “there was no escape route in the working area where the four mineworkers were found dead”. 

The NUM further iterated that the mine’s proto team - a group of workers trained to perform underground rescues - did not respond quickly enough to save the miners and “deliberately stopped the team leaders and winch drivers from rescuing the four mineworkers.” No direct evidence was given for this but the NUM claimed it had been briefed by workers present at the scene. 

South Africa is home to some of the world’s deepest mines and fatal accidents are common. According to the country’s department of mineral resources, 81 people died in South Africa’s mines last year.