Rescuers removed 36 bodies and 82 survivors from a gold mine in South Africa Mining News

Hundreds more have survived and many more bodies are still underground, according to the miners’ rights group.

South African rescuers have removed 36 bodies and 82 survivors from a gold mine in two days of work, police said, adding that the survivors will face charges of illegal mining and immigration.

After the discovery of nine bodies on Monday, another 27 were removed from the ground on Tuesday, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe of the police said in a statement.

Police began laying siege to the mine about 150km (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg in the town of Stilfontein in August and cut off food and water for months to force the miners out to arrest them as part of a crackdown on illegal mining.

Hundreds more survivors and dozens of bodies are still underground, according to the miners’ rights group, which released photos on Monday showing the bodies and skeletons of survivors in the mine.

The rescue operations, which involved the use of a steel cage to rescue survivors and bodies from the mine shaft more than 2km (1.2 miles) underground, will continue for days. Police said they will provide daily information on numbers.

Generally, illegal mining takes place in mines that have been abandoned by companies because they are no longer commercially viable.

Unlicensed miners, often from other African countries, come in to extract whatever is left.

‘Economic war’

The South African government has said that the blockade of the Stilfontein mine is necessary to combat illegal mining, which Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe has described as “a war on the economy”.

He estimated that the illegal trade in precious metals was worth 60 billion rand ($3.17bn) last year.

Minister in the Office of the President Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said in November: “We do not send aid to criminals. We will smoke them.”

But a court ruled in December that volunteers should be allowed to send supplies to those stranded, and another law last week ordered the state to launch a rescue operation, which began on Monday.

“All 82 arrested are facing charges of illegal mining, trespassing and violation of the Immigration Act,” said a police statement, referring to all those released alive on Monday and Tuesday.

The statement added that two of them will face other charges for possession of gold.

The government’s dismissal, which is part of a campaign called “Vala Umgodi” or “Vala Umgodi” in the Zulu language, has been criticized by human rights organizations and local residents.