3,000 trapped underground

CARLETONVILLE, South Africa – Some 3,000 gold miners were trapped a mile underground Wednesday when falling pipe damaged the elevator, but the company began rescuing workers through a smaller shaft and estimated it would take several hours to get them all out.

About 350 miners had been pulled to safety after about three hours of work, the company said.

There were no injuries and there was no immediate danger to any of the workers in Harmony Gold Mining Co.’s Elandsrand Mine, company and union officials said.

Peter Bailey, health and safety chairman for the National Mineworkers Union, said the first 74 men reached the surface shortly after 1 a.m. today. “They are all doing well,” he said.

The miners were trapped at a level slightly more than a mile underground when a column of water pipes fell down an elevator shaft causing extensive damage to the steel framework and electrical cables. Miners had to be evacuated with a smaller cage in another shaft.

Sethiri Thibile, with the first batch of miners rescued about 19 hours after the accident occurred, clutched a cold beef sandwich and a bottle of water he was given when he reached the surface.

“I was hungry, though we were all hungry,” said Thibile, 32, an engineering assistant who had been underground since early Wednesday morning. He said there was no food or water in the mine.

“Most of the people are scared and we also have some women miners there underground,” said Thibile.

After Thibile’s group rescued, Harmony’s acting chief executive Graham Briggs told the Associated Press groups would be brought to the surface at intervals of every 25 to 30 minutes.

“It’s going to take some time because we are doing it carefully,” he said. “Nobody is injured, nobody is hurt, nothing like that at all.”