All the workers who were bellow ground at the Harmony Gold operated Kusasalethu Mine, at Carletonville near Johannesburg in South Africa, when an underground fire broke out on Sunday 22 February 2015 have been brought to the surface safely. A total of 486 workers were bellow ground when the fire broke out at about 9.40 am local time, some as deep as 3.5 km bellow ground, though all were safely evacuated to refuge areas within the mine (many modern mines have isolated safe areas with separate ventilation systems and communications, enabling miners to wait out exactly this sort of problem). All of the workers were safely brought to the surface by 11.00 pm.
The Kusasalethu Mine, at Carletonville near Johannesburg in South Africa. Harmony Gold.
The fire is understood to have broken out during maintenance work on an air cooler 2.3 km bellow ground. All mining operations at the mine are currently suspended pending an investigation by Harmony Gold and the Department of Mineral Resources.
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