Trapped a Mile Underground, 3,000 Goldminers Face Grim Wait for Rescue

Rescue workers were last night attempting to free 3,000 workers trapped more than a mile underground in a South African gold mine. The owners of the Elandsrand mine west of Johannesburg said the men were cut off by extensive damage to the main lift shaft yesterday morning. Rescuers plan to bring the workers out via an equipment lift, but that is likely to take most of today.

The National Union of Mineworkers said it feared for the workers as temperatures in the mine can rise to more than 40C. "We are very worried because they could be suffocating," said the union spokesperson, Lesiba Seshoka. "Also because of the fact there's been a [rock] fall, so anything could happen."

The cause of the accident was in dispute, the union attributing it to a rock fall, the company saying a pipe carrying chilled water down the shaft, to cool air underground, broke and damaged equipment.

Amelia Soares, spokeswoman for the mine owner, Harmony Gold, said rescue workers were in touch with the workers, who have adequate ventilation and water. "Nobody was injured, but there was extensive damage to the steel work and electrical feeder cords," she said.

Rescue workers were trying to adapt a second lift, usually used to carry waste and equipment, to bring the trapped miners out. The second cage can only raise about 300 people an hour.

Ms Soares said some workers were making their way to an adjacent AngloAshanti mine in an attempt to leave by its shaft. Some of the miners began their shift on Tuesday evening and were underground for more than 24 hours last night.

Peter Bailey, the health and safety chairman for the National Union of Mineworkers, said the first 74 miners to be evacuated reached the surface shortly after 1am (2300 GMT). "They are all doing well."

The Elandsrand mine taps into the world's largest gold deposits and some of the miners were working on sinking the shaft to 3.5km (2.2 miles) to tap richer seams and extend the life of the mine.

Mr Seshoka said workers at the mine had previously complained that the shaft had "not been maintained for ages".

"Our guys there tell us that they have raised concerns about the whole issue of maintenance of shafts with the mine [owners] but they have not been attended to," he said. The union also criticized Harmony Gold for failing to have an escape shaft or route as many other mines have.

South African mines have a poor safety record. The NUM said 12 times as many people are killed in mining accidents in South Africa than in Australia. Nearly 200 miners were killed last year and a similar number are expected to die this year. About 440,000 people work in South African gold, coal and platinum mines.

In July, the minerals and energy minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, toured a gold mine where four people were killed and asked why mine owners had failed to meet a government target to cut fatalities by at least 20% a year. The numbers of deaths has remained consistent for the past three years. "We are where we were last year. It doesn't seem we are getting the improvement," she said.

The NUM says lack of investment is the main problem. The mine owners say South Africa faces unique problems because its mines are among the deepest in the world.