Nearly a third of the 260 miners trapped underground following a shaft accident at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Kloof gold mine have been brought to the surface, the company confirmed on Friday, as rescue efforts continued with no reported injuries.
Keith Sungiso
The incident occurred on Thursday when a hoist system used to access the Kloof 7 shaft, located roughly 60 kilometres west of Johannesburg, sustained damage. The malfunction left 260 miners deep underground at one of Sibanye’s deepest operations, extending about 3,200 meters (2 miles) below the surface.
By early Friday afternoon, 79 miners had been safely hoisted out of the shaft.
“The remaining 181 employees … have been provided with food and will be hoisted to surface as soon as safety to hoist is confirmed,” Sibanye-Stillwater said in a statement.
A company spokesperson later told Reuters that the process of bringing all remaining workers to the surface was expected to be completed “soon.”
There were no casualties or injuries reported.
“Fortunately, there were no fatalities or injuries,” said Duncan Luvuno, Health and Safety Chairperson of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), during a briefing at the site. “But for … 24 hours, people were not eating or drinking anything. This is not adequate. Some have chronic diseases.”
Journalists were denied access to the mine shaft, but a Reuters reporter observed miners, appearing exhausted yet physically unharmed, boarding buses at the mine’s perimeter after being rescued.
Outside the mine, concern gripped relatives of those still underground.
“I haven’t slept a wink,” said Mamodise Mokone, whose husband was among the trapped miners. “I just want to tell the management or whoever is in charge: I just want my husband out alive.”
Sibanye-Stillwater earlier described the accident as a “shaft incident” and stated all workers had been gathered safely at an underground assembly point while rescue operations commenced.
Kloof mine contributes 14% of Sibanye’s total gold production. In addition to gold mining, the Johannesburg-based company operates platinum group metal mines in South Africa and the United States.
South Africa’s mining sector, while heavily regulated, has a long history of accidents. The country is home to some of the world’s deepest and oldest mines, many of which are now disused and overrun by informal miners. In a separate incident earlier this year, at least 78 bodies were recovered from an illegal mine following a months-long crackdown.
Rescue efforts at Kloof are ongoing, with workers and families anxiously awaiting a safe resolution to what could have been a far more tragic event.
