IOL.png 100 mine workers trapped underground Nicola Mawson, IOL Business Editor, Johannesburg, 5 February 2016 More than 100 people are trapped underground at a gold mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga, after an unspecified geological incident this morning. In a statement issued Friday by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the labour body says about 115 staff are trapped after the main offices at Makonjwaan Gold Mine caved in at around 8.40am. Currently, it is not clear what caused the disaster. Spokesman Manzini Zungu says AMCU leadership are en route to the mine. He has heard unconfirmed reports that 3 people may have died. Zungu says it is possible that the incident was caused by a sinkhole, although Barberton is not known for such geological issues. Currently, says Zungu, it is not clear how far underground the miners are. He adds emergency services should already be on site to rescue those who are trapped. Makonjwaan was one of the first open pit gold mines to be established in South Africa. Its current ownership was not immediately clear. Update: Reuters has since publication reported that some 49 miners have so far been rescued after a mine shaft collapsed in eastern South Africa, trapping about 100 workers, emergency services group ER24 said. "Mine rescue services are still busy on scene to rescue the remaining miners underground," it said in a statement. From: <http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/100-mine-workers-trapped-underground-198 0427> http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/100-mine-workers-trapped-underground-1980 427 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
