Source : Perth Now news
At least 14 suspected illegal miners have been killed and eight injured when a mine dump collapsed in South Africa’s North West province, police say.
Search and rescue operations were ongoing for an unknown number of people who may still be trapped at the site near Rustenburg, provincial police commissioner Arthur Peter Adams said.
The collapse occurred on Monday as the miners were digging for platinum group metals at a disused dump on a private company’s site, Adams said.
The injured miners are from neighbouring Lesotho while the citizenship of those killed has yet to be confirmed.
Illegal mining has plagued South Africa for decades, ranging from small-scale theft to operations run by organised criminal networks.
Undocumented miners often enter abandoned commercial mines to extract remaining deposits, sometimes under the control of gangs.
Illegal mining costs the government and mining industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year in lost sales, taxes and royalties.
