Between August and January, more than 1,500 miners emerged voluntarily from the Buffelsfontein shaft. Others died attempting ...

The Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, the scene of the disaster, became a police target in August but it was only in November that the miners' situation drew the attention of rights groups.

The standoff at Buffelsfontein began in August 2024, when nearly 2,000 miners descended into the decommissioned mine, southwest of Johannesburg, seeking residual gold deposits.

STILFONTEIN, South Africa — The death toll in a months-long standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87 ...

Police say the death toll in a standoff with miners trapped while working illegally at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87.

Last week, rescuers recovered 78 bodies and 246 survivors — many of them weak and emaciated — from the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein, in South Africa’s North West province, where police ...

Authorities launched an operation in November to force the illegally operating miners out by cutting off food and water from the surface for a time. Hundreds are thought to remain underground.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African authorities have come under intense scrutiny for their response after civic groups said hundreds of miners have been trapped deep in an abandoned ...

The tragedy, which left South Africa divided, and left many illegal miners dead in its wake, unfolded last year after the police in August began blocking food and water from entering the ...

Buffelsfontein mine. National / 22 November 2024. Local economy reels from police blockade of Stilfontein mine. Illegal miners want the state to legalise their operations as it is the only way for ...

South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a ...