Over 100 die in standoff at illegal South Africa gold mine

Officials with the country’s ministries of Police and Mineral Resources and Energy on Tuesday visited the closed Stilfontein mine in the North West Province. Authorities were retrieving hundreds of illegal miners from underground shafts where they hid during a months-long standoff with police. The government last week finalized an agreement with Mine Rescue Services to extract the men.

An organization representing the miners, called the Mining Affected Communities United in Action Group or MACUA, claimed that the rescue operation only began after a high court ordered officials to save the miners. But government officials said they were working on the rescue agreement before the group brought its case to a court. Police did not say Tuesday how many men are presumed to still be in the shaft.

How many people have died? At least 100 men have died in the mine due to suspected starvation and dehydration, according to a news release from MACUA. Videos released Monday by the trade union General Industries Workers of South Africa appeared to show bodies in makeshift body bags, and emaciated miners begging for help. Officials late last year cut off entrances to the mine to try to force the miners to surface as part of the government’s Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation. The operation began in 2023 with the goal of ending illegal mining, which has increased in the country as gold mines close but the workers continue looking for gold.

Dig deeper: Read my report from November about the authorities attempting to flush miners out by cutting off their supplies.