3000 Miners Trapped In South African Mine

There is a potential tragedy unfolding in South Africa, as mroe than 3,000 miners have been trapped in a gold mine.

About 3,000 miners were trapped underground Wednesday when a water pipe burst and probably caused a shaft to collapse in a South African gold mine, officials said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries at Harmony Gold's Elandsrand Mine near Johannesburg.

A company executive said officials have been in contact with the trapped workers and expect to rescue them over the next 24 hours. Harmony's acting chief executive, Graham Briggs, said on MSNBC that the miners have been receiving food and water. He said the rescuers would evacuate the miners over the next day using a small cage in another shaft, but the process would be a slow one.

We should send them our best wishes, and prayers, and hope that the optimism of the mining official's will be proven correct. Amazing that 3,000 miners would be inside a mine at one time anyway. There is more about the company below:

Harmony Gold Mining Company specializes in turning old digs into new digs. The company generally buys under-performing gold operations and turns them into low-cost, high-productivity mines. Harmony is South Africa's third largest gold miner and among the world's largest as well. South Africa accounts for the vast majority of its sales, about 90%. The company produces more than 3 million ounces of gold annually and has 56 million ounces in reserves. Outside of South Africa, it also operates mines in Australia and exploration projects in Peru and Papua New Guinea.

Harmony is the only South African gold mining company with its own dedicated refinery and gold fabrication plants. Harmony Pure Gold is gold of South African origin, produced and manufactured to the highest quality standards, and guaranteed by modern production and laboratory facilities.
Sourced from mines up to 2,500 meters deep, and extracted from rock formed more than 3 billion years ago, Harmony Pure Gold is the finest gold from the African continent.

We shall keep an eye on the news updates, and hope for a happy ending!




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