Months into a campaign to try to weed out illicit miners, authorities in South Africa announced Wednesday that 60 bodies had been removed from an abandoned gold pit.
After locals expressed concern that more than 100 people might have perished in the mine in Stilfontein, which is roughly 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, authorities started attempting to recover the dead and raise survivors on Monday.
“106 live illegal miners were apprehended and detained for illicit mining on the second day of operations. Police announced in a statement that 51 people were officially declared dead. The day before, nine bodies had been removed.
A specialized equipment was sent in Monday to haul out the miners and the remains, one handful at a time, from the 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) subterranean mine.
These miners are referred to by South Africans as “zama zamas”—”those who try” in Zulu. They are frequently immigrants from nearby nations who are accused of crimes by locals.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu declined to estimate the number of people who might still be underground during a visit to the site on Tuesday, despite police expressing concerns that hundreds more could be there.
“There is no way on earth anyone can come and say: ‘I know for certain that there are so many’,” he said. “Every number that we have here is an estimate, is a guess.”
Macua, a group that supports the miners, submitted a video to AFP on Monday that seemed to show dozens of cloth-wrapped corpses inside the mine chambers.
Since authorities began removing illicit miners from Stilfontein in August, more than 1,500 of them have been taken into custody. According to police, 121 of them have been deported by South Africa.
The survivors’ legs have been reduced to skin and bones, giving the impression that they are malnourished.
In an attempt to drive the miners away, authorities had once attempted to cut off the mine’s food and water supplies. However, in November, a judge mandated that police remove all restrictions at the shaft so that individuals above ground can start bringing food and water down to those below.
