JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed gold mining major Harmony Gold was hopeful of a successful rescue of nine missing workers after rescuers reportedly did not find them at the source of the now-smouldering fire at Harmony Gold’s Doornkop mine, west of Johannesburg.
Harmony believed this was encouraging, as the workers could have retreated to a crosscut near the main haulage, which held a good possibility of air supply.
The nine workers went missing and another eight were trapped after a fall-of-ground accident at the mine and a subsequent fire at about 18:00 on February 4. Preliminary investigations indicated that a 2.4 seismic event had triggered the accident.
The eight trapped workers were rescued from a refuge bay earlier on Wednesday.
The specialised rescue teams battled to gain access through the fire, which had subsided by Wednesday afternoon, and in the aftermath of the fall-of-ground.