|
Mine rescue 'slow but steady'
04/10/2007 08:56 - (SA)
Johannesburg - About 750 miners of the 3 200 trapped underground at Harmony Gold's Elandsrand mine near Carletonville had been rescued by 07:00 on Thursday, a mine spokesperson said.
"It's slow but steady and we are confident that by 16:00 we'll have everybody out," Amelia Soares said.
"They are in good health and waiting patiently," she said of the workers still trapped underground.
Responding to union comments that one of the alternative exits had been inaccessible because it was flooded, Soares said that "no one has reported any water".
The National Union of Mineworkers had also claimed that lack of maintenance caused the pipes to collapse and fall down the mine - which severed the electricity supply to the lift normally used to hoist the workers out of the mine.
Soares said that Harmony spent R1.2bn on its shafts last year and a further R114m in capital expenditure.
Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica was expected to arrive at the mine at 11:00.
Harmony chairperson Patrice Motsepe had been at the scene the whole night, said Soares.
The Associated Press earlier quoted Motsepe as saying he had been in the mining business since the 1980s and could not remember another incident in which so many miners had been trapped underground.
|
News
