644 mineworkers have been rescued from a gold mine in Gauteng State, South Africa, following an underground fire on Thursday 26 July 2018. The fire occured at the Gold One operated Modder East Mine in Springs, and all of the miners were able able to reach safe areas (e refuges with their own air supply where miners can wait for specialist rescue teams with breathing equipment), from where they were later evacuated.
The entrance to the Modder East Gold Mine in Gauteng, South Africa. Wikimapia.
The precies cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but the mine operators have been praised by the South African government for the successful rescue of all workers. The incident comes less than two weeks after six miners died in a fire at a copper mine in Limpopo Province, and at a time when their are growing concerns about declining safety standards in the South African mining industry, with almost sixty deaths in the industry so far this year.
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