Nearly one-third of the 260 miners were underground after an accident in Sibni-Stilwatter SSWJ.J Gold Mine in South Africa, brought to the surface on Friday, the company said, a senior association official confirmed that there was no injury to it.
After the miners were waved, it was underground, which was used to use a shaft in the Clof Gold Mine – one of the deepest of Sibni, located about 37 miles west of Johannesburg, was damaged in an accident on Thursday.
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Sibni said that 79 employees were brought to the surface by 1:30 pm local time in the first phase of an operation to remove the miners.
Sibni said in a statement, “The remaining 181 employees … are provided with food and will be hoisted on the surface as soon as the safety is confirmed to hoist.”
A spokesperson of the company told Reuters late Friday night that the process was expected to be completed “soon”.
Mamodis Mokon, whose husbands are still trapped in the miners, react, as she talks to the media on May 23, 2025 at Sibni Stillwater Mine in Westonaria, Johannesburg, South Africa. (Reuters/Spivite Cibio)
“Fortunately there were no deadly or injuries,” the National Union of Minor workers (NUM) health and security president Duncan Luvuno told reporters at the site. “But for … 24 hours people were not eating anything or not drinking. It is not enough. Some have chronic diseases.”
Journalists were barred from going to the mine shaft by security guards, but a Reuters reporter saw some miners, which were tired, but in good health, the company’s grounds and boards run in the periphery of buses.
However, in the mine, relatives of those still expressed shock and concern that their loved ones remained underground.
“I didn’t sleep an eye,” said Mamodis Mokon, whose husbands were among the miners. “I just want to tell the management or whoever is in charge: I just want to make my husband alive.”
Sibni earlier said that all workers were safe that it was called the “shaft event” in the Clof 7 shaft and gathered at an assembly point as efforts were started to bring them out of the mine.
Johannesburg -based Sibni is only one of the South African miners, squeezing profits from some of the world’s deepest and expensive gold mines. Sibni Clof is digging to sleep at a depth of about two miles on the 7 shaft.
Clof Mine, which is 14% of the total gold production of Sibni, also operates two other shafts. The company also mines platinum-group metals in South Africa and the United States.
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Mining accidents in South Africa are not abnormal, where many abandoned mines have been taken by informal excavations.
Earlier this year, at least 78 bodies were drawn from an illegal gold mine after cutting food and water supply for months in an attempt to tighten the illegal mining activity.
