South Africa’s Stilfontein mine: ‘Mammoth task’ to identify bodies, police say

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.

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

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.