News24 reports that rescue teams have started pumping oxygen into the shaft where five mine workers are trapped 3.1km below ground in Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu mine in Carletonville.  

Spokesperson Marian van der Walton said on Friday night that this would reduce the risk of the miners suffocating while rescue operations were underway.  Four rescue teams were due to work in shifts throughout Friday night and Saturday morning to ensure the safe return of the miners.  They were trapped behind a rock wall after a tremor, measuring 1.2, caused sections of the mine to collapse at 10:30 on Friday morning.  Rescuers managed to talk to one of the trapped miners through the rock wall on Friday afternoon.  About 3,000 miners were working at the mine at the time of the tremor.  No other injuries have been reported.

• Read this report by James de Villiers in full at News24
• Read too, Rescuers make contact with one of five miners trapped at Kusasalethu Mine, at EWN

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