EWN reports that there may be survivors trapped underground in an unused mining shaft in Welkom, in the Free State, where at least 31 illegal miners believed to be Basotho nationals were killed during a methane explosion last month.
The mining shaft that was last used by Harmony Gold more than three decades ago. Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) Minister Gwede Mantashe revealed that movements beneath the earth were detected, noting that they could be a sign of survivors. “In terms of behaviour of methane from the surface, there is movement underground, and our suspicion is that there may be people who are still there. And if there are people still there and methane explodes further, there may be additional deaths,” Mantashe said. He was briefing the media at the Harmony Gold offices on Monday afternoon. At the same briefing, the company's spokesperson Sihle Maake said recovery efforts could not proceed. “There's still very high levels of methane gas. So, we're currently not allowing anybody to go there. It’s also very dangerous for us to send a rescue team. That’s why we're working very closely with the DMRE to find safe solutions to determine how best we can retrieve the bodies that are still underground,” Maake explained.
- Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Orrin Singh at EWN
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