FIFTEEN ‘subsistence’ miners trapped in an underground shaft at Redwing mine in Zimbabwe after it collapsed on January 4 were rescued on Sunday.
Reuters reported that the miners were trapped after a ground collapse at the mine, 270 kilometres east of the capital Harare. “All miners were rescued alive,” government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said.
The rescue operation had been delayed due to unstable ground according to Metallon Gold, which owns Redwing.
Video footage posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, by Mangwana showed the workers, covered in mud, being greeted by a small jubilant crowd at the mine site, said Reuters.
Formal mining operations at Redwing have been undertaken by subsistence miners carrying out unsanctioned work since the mine was placed under corporate rescue in 2020, the company said.
The fate of artisanal miners caught in mining accidents is rarely this good. In December 11 informal miners were confirmed dead and their bodies retrieved from an open-pit copper mine in Zambia after landslides buried them in tunnels they were digging.
One survivor has been found but up to 26 others remain missing and are feared dead nearly two weeks after the disaster, according to a report by AP.
In its report Government officials said as many as 38 miners might have been buried under the landslides at the mine near the city of Chingola, on Zambia’s copper belt, although they aren’t certain of the exact number.
