Toll is expected to rise Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine, where they have languished for over two months during a standoff with authorities who demanded they surrender to police because they were mining illegally.
South African authorities have argued that the miners were always able to exit through another shaft at Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, one of the deepest in the mineral-rich country.
Civic groups claim authorities also removed the ropes and pulley systems that the miners used to enter and exit at least one shaft and send down supplies.
Hundreds are still believed to be trapped Wednesday and the death toll is expected to rise in a disaster that has focused criticism on the South African government’s decision to try to “smoke them out” by cutting off food and other supplies for a time.
A rescue is now underway — after a court order — but only a few miners can be pulled up at a time, and the operation could take 10 days.
