About 955 workers remain trapped in a gold mine in South Africa after a storm caused a power cut, preventing them from getting out.
Reports say a power cut left hundreds of workers stuck at Sibyane Gold’s Beatrix Mine in the central Free State.
“We have got 955 employees still underground, they are in a confined and safe area, it’s the shaft waiting area (and) there is ventilation, we are supplying them with water and food,” James Wellsted, spokesman for Sibanye-Stillwater, told AFP.
“So everybody is fine at the moment. We are trying to restore power so we can start hoisting them to the surface,” he said, speaking on the phone from the mine.
The Beatrix mine is in Welkom town, about 290km (180 miles) south-west of Johannesburg. It is owned by Sibanye-Stillwater mining firm.
It has 23 levels, going down to 1,000 metres (3,280 ft) below ground.
One cable was restored during the day and 272 workers were rescued, but 955 remained trapped by early evening, the company said.
Wellsted said that engineers were struggling to get emergency generators to operate and re-start the lifts working again.
“We are having some issues – probably related to the power surge linked to the storm – in getting the winders working, so we are busy working on that issue at the moment,” he added.
“Last night there was a severe storm in the Free State (province) that affected two different power cables… and cut off all electricity supply to the mine, so we were unable to bring the night shift up.”
Back-up power generators failed to kick in due to a software issue “and we are trying to solve that problem,” said Wellsted.
> Shiuly Akter
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