JOHANNESBURG – The operation to rescue three miners are trapped underground for over a month at Vantage Goldfields’ Lily Mine at Barberton, Mpumalanga, have been suspended indefinitely and the mine would call another rock specialist to make a determination.

The drilling of the second outlet at Lily mine has been completed, but a small team who went underground found that rocks were still falling, and the ground was not stable enough to send rescue teams down.

On Monday, Lily spokesperson Coetzee Zietsman said it was not safe to continue the search and that mine management was in constant communication with the team of experts to chart the way forward.

“The operation has been suspended indefinitely. Experts say it is too unstable underground. At this stage, we don’t know when the operation will resume,” Zietsman said.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane returned to Lily Mine on Sunday to receive an update on rescue efforts from the mine management and the team of inspectors from the department.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) on Monday said it supported the move to put the operation on hold until the environment is stable.

Amcu’s health and safety rep, Gabriel Nkosi, said he had accompanied a team of rescuers underground last week, together with Professor Francois Malan from the Department of Mine Geology and Orientation at the University of Pretoria, and saw first-hand how unstable the environment was.

“The whole underground environment is deteriorating further. So we cannot as Amcu agree on taking chances that would expose the lives of rescuers to risk,” Nkosi said.

Nkosi said the mine was now waiting for South African mining geotechnical engineer, William Joughin, who was attending a world rock engineering meeting abroad, to arrive and make a determination about the safety of the mine and the way forward about the rescue operation.

Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda were trapped underground when the lamp room container they were working in fell into the sinkhole created by a collapsed crown pillar before being covered by huge rocks on February 5.