http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/3200-south-afri.html
3,200 South African miners trapped a mile underground
A falling pipe has badly damaged a mine shaft in South Africa, trapping 3,200 miners more than a mile underground, Bloomberg is reporting.
A spokeswomen for Harmony Gold Mining Co., Africa's third-largest gold producer, said an adjacent shaft that transports waste must be "reconfigured'' to bring the workers to the surface of the Elandsrand mine. No estimate of how long that will take.
Bloomberg writes that the mines are the world's deepest and among the most dangerous, with 113 workers killed last year by rock bursts, mudslides, tremors and exploding gases.
No comment yet from the mine workers' union.
Update at 5:08 p.m. ET: Reuters has picked up this story.
Update at 5:58 p.m. ET: It now seems that a burst water pipe caused the shaft to collapse. The company tells the Associated Press it's working to evacuate the miners over the next 24 hours. (It's now early Thursday, just past midnight.) Food and water are being sent down to the men.
The union is concerned the miners might be trapped without oxygen because of collapsed ground, or impeded by rock falls and mud slides by the burst water pipe, AP writes. A union spokesman said workers had complained the shafts were not being maintained properly. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
Update at 7:34 p.m. ET: A Harmony Gold spokeswoman has said the shaft is blocked by an elevator cage that broke loose when the falling pipe snapped the cable. SAPA, the South African Press Association, says the accident occurred about 10 a.m. local time but was not reported to news outlets until 10 p.m. The spokeswoman said it would take about 10 hours to bring all the miners to the surface using an elevator in the adjacent shaft.
Update at 7:44 p.m. ET: The first 74 miners have been rescued, the union tells AP.
Update at 8:01 p.m. ET: Here are key health and safety reports from the government's Department of Minerals and Energy.
3,200 South African miners trapped a mile underground
A falling pipe has badly damaged a mine shaft in South Africa, trapping 3,200 miners more than a mile underground, Bloomberg is reporting.
A spokeswomen for Harmony Gold Mining Co., Africa's third-largest gold producer, said an adjacent shaft that transports waste must be "reconfigured'' to bring the workers to the surface of the Elandsrand mine. No estimate of how long that will take.
Bloomberg writes that the mines are the world's deepest and among the most dangerous, with 113 workers killed last year by rock bursts, mudslides, tremors and exploding gases.
No comment yet from the mine workers' union.
Update at 5:08 p.m. ET: Reuters has picked up this story.
Update at 5:58 p.m. ET: It now seems that a burst water pipe caused the shaft to collapse. The company tells the Associated Press it's working to evacuate the miners over the next 24 hours. (It's now early Thursday, just past midnight.) Food and water are being sent down to the men.
The union is concerned the miners might be trapped without oxygen because of collapsed ground, or impeded by rock falls and mud slides by the burst water pipe, AP writes. A union spokesman said workers had complained the shafts were not being maintained properly. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
Update at 7:34 p.m. ET: A Harmony Gold spokeswoman has said the shaft is blocked by an elevator cage that broke loose when the falling pipe snapped the cable. SAPA, the South African Press Association, says the accident occurred about 10 a.m. local time but was not reported to news outlets until 10 p.m. The spokeswoman said it would take about 10 hours to bring all the miners to the surface using an elevator in the adjacent shaft.
Update at 7:44 p.m. ET: The first 74 miners have been rescued, the union tells AP.
Update at 8:01 p.m. ET: Here are key health and safety reports from the government's Department of Minerals and Energy.
