Trapped South African workers brought safely back to surface

THEUNISSEN, South Africa - All 955 gold miners who were trapped underground for more than a day in South Africa following a power cut resurfaced unharmed on Friday, and were greeted by overjoyed relatives waiting at the site.

"Everybody's out," mine spokesman James Wellsted told AFP, adding that there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.

There were "cases of dehydration and high blood pressure but nothing serious", he said.

The accident is believed to have been caused by thunderstorms on Wednesday night. Strong thunderstorms damaged power lines, causing an outage and leaving the miners unable to take elevators to get to the surface.

"This is a very unusual occurrence. We haven't had this kind of thing before but obviously we will assess and see what we can learn from it," said Sibanye-Stillwater, the company that owns the mine.

The miners were stuck in the Beatrix gold mine, in the small town of Theunissen near the city of Welkom, for around 30 hours, with families and relatives keeping a constant vigil on the surface.

According to reports, engineers had struggled with a software fault to get emergency generators to operate and restart the lifts in the mine.

Food and water were delivered to the trapped workers and all operations at the mine have been suspended.

"It was stressful, there was not enough ventilation," said mineworker Mike Khonto. "Thankfully our management managed to send us food and water."

Wellsted said there was "no indication so far that anyone has been in distress", although it was a "traumatic experience".

A young woman, who spent the night anxiously waiting near the mine for news of her uncle, could not hide her joy.

"We are relieved," she told AFP, without giving her name.

She had been among a group of miners' relatives who gathered along the road leading to the shaft, and who were kept at a distance by security guards as they awaited developments.

Several ambulances arrived on-site overnight, said an AFP reporter at the scene.

At sunrise the rescued workers still in their work suits and helmets, underwent medical checkups and left by bus.

Mine safety is a serious concern in the country, which operates some of the world's deepest and most dangerous mines. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said it wants the government to investigate the cause.

"Our government needs to come to the party with some tangible enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations and work to reduce mine accidents," said Sizwe Pamla, Cosatu's national spokesman.

Cosatu said mining companies should learn from past experiences to prevent an increase of mine fatalities.

In 2007, 3,200 gold miners were trapped underground in a mine operated by company Harmony Gold's Elandsrand. They were all lifted out safely one day after the accident. In February 2015, Harmony Gold rescued 486 miners who were trapped underground after a fire broke out.

A parliamentary committee on mining expressed outrage at the incident, calling for "drastic" action against the company.

It condemned as "utterly unacceptable" the lack of a backup plan to bring the workers to the surface.

Xinhua - Afp