"It is a sad day for South Africa" -- Mineral Resources Minister
- 10 years ago
South Africa's worst mining accicent in five years has claimed at least eight lives, and one person is still missing.
It happened here at the Harmony gold mine near Johannesburg.
The accident was reportedly triggered by an earthquake Tuesday evening, which caused a fire and rock fall.
Rescuers had to make their way through smoke and debris to rescue eight other miners who managed to escape.
The bodies of the victims are now being recovered.
South African Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu:
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MINING MINISTER, SUSAN SHABANGU, SAYING:
"It is a tragic day, it is a sad day for South Africa to once more experience such an incident, for the past five years we've gone through various stages in making sure that South Africa when it comes to safety records of the mining industry that's better, when we thought that we are there, then we experience what we are seeing here at Harmony."
Operations have stopped at the mine for
It happened here at the Harmony gold mine near Johannesburg.
The accident was reportedly triggered by an earthquake Tuesday evening, which caused a fire and rock fall.
Rescuers had to make their way through smoke and debris to rescue eight other miners who managed to escape.
The bodies of the victims are now being recovered.
South African Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu:
(SOUNDBITE) (English) MINING MINISTER, SUSAN SHABANGU, SAYING:
"It is a tragic day, it is a sad day for South Africa to once more experience such an incident, for the past five years we've gone through various stages in making sure that South Africa when it comes to safety records of the mining industry that's better, when we thought that we are there, then we experience what we are seeing here at Harmony."
Operations have stopped at the mine for