South African diamond mining company files for bankruptcy after five miners killed in flood.

South African mining company Ekapa Minerals has filed for liquidation following the death of five miners at its Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine at Kimberly in Northern Cape Province, South Africa, on 17 February 2026. The miners have been missing presumed dead since a slurry of water and mud rapidly filled the section of the mine where they were working. The area where the incident occurred was located 890 m below ground, and had only recently been opened up, and life support systems had been installed, but the sudden nature of the flood has led the mine operators to conclude that the incident was not survivable, and, following several days of attempts to reach and clear the site, that there is little hope of recovering the bodies of the lost miners.

A mine rescue team entering the Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine site this week. SABC News.

Floods and inrushes typically occur when miners accidentally break through into pockets of water and gas trapped within rocks. Since such buried waters are often under high pressure due to the weight of rocks above them, they tend to escape into the mine rapidly, and on occasion explosively, leading to a highly dangerous situation in which miners are often rapidly overwhelmed. Such inrushes can also occur when miners encounter flooded disused mineworkings, a danger in areas where mining has occurred for a long time but good records have not been kept. The Ekapa mine had a history of flood inrush events, and the company had been warned by a parliamentary committee in 2025 that steps needed to be taken to avoid future events of this kind.

The Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine site. SABC News.

The closure of the mine is predicted to result in the loss of about 1200 jobs, a crisis for the city of Kimberly, which has a population of just under 97 000 people, and is already suffering from high unemployment rates due to the decline of the diamond industry. Furthermore, workers from the site report that they have not received their salaries for the month of February 2026, placing many of the in a very difficult situation financially. 

Ekapa Minerals purchased the Joint Shaft Mine from mining giant De Beers in 2016, and at the time of closure it was the last surviving diamond mine in Kimberly. In theory, the site could be sold on to another mining company following the liquidation process, but it is unclear if a buyer will be found given the mine's problems and a fluctuating diamond market.

The location of Kimberley in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Google Maps.

Kimberly was founded in the 1870s following the discovery of diamonds in the area, and rapidly became a centre of wealth in the Cape Colony, opening South Africa's first stock exchange in 1881, and becoming the second city in the world to install electric street lighting the following year. However, in recent years the city's mines have closed one-by-one as the industry has become less viable. The long history of mining in the area means that there are no diamonds left close to the surface, and while they can still be found at greater depths, these are generally fairly small, making it hard for these mines to compete with either shallow, open pit mines elsewhere, or artificial lab-grown diamonds.

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