No more miners are trapped in South Africa’s Stilfontein mine, rescue volunteers say

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During the visit on Tuesday, police and the mining minister were insulted and told to leave by angry crowds who blamed the government for the deaths.

Police said more than 1,500 miners had come to the surface before rescue operations began, Reuters news agency reported.

However, others remain underground, either because they fear arrest or are forced to live there by the gangs that control the mines.

A spokesman for the South African Police Service said of the volunteers’ statement that no one is currently still underground: “We will rely on the Mine Rescue Service to confirm this and their advanced equipment which will hopefully give us a picture of what is happening in underground.

“The Mine Rescue Service has confirmed that they will send an underground cage in the morning to see if any illegal miners surface and cage. We can not say for sure that the operation has been called out at this stage.”

Many mines in South Africa have been abandoned over the last thirty years by companies that did not find them economically viable.

Mining has been taken over by gangs, often former workers, who sell the minerals they find on the black market.

These include a mine in Stilfontein, about 145km (90 miles) south-west of the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, which has been the focus of government efforts to clamp down on the illegal industry.

A rescue cage has made a trip down the shaft to reach a score of miners considered to be at least 2km (1.2 miles) underground.

Many survivors have had no food and water since November, leaving them emaciated. They are now receiving medical treatment.