Five presumed lifeless after mudslide hits South African diamond mine | EUROtoday

Five diamond miners, lacking since a deep underground mudslide on Tuesday, at the moment are presumed lifeless, South Africa’s mining minister confirmed on Friday. Gwede Mantashe introduced that the main focus had shifted to retrieving their our bodies, public broadcaster the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. The employees grew to become trapped over 800 metres beneath the floor following a “mud-rush” on the Ekapa mine within the Northern Cape province early on Tuesday morning.

Ekapa Minerals, the corporate that operates the mine, mentioned all operations have been stopped instantly after the incident and that rescue efforts have been persevering with.

“The time passed since the event is a major concern but there is no change in approach to the rescue activities and we are not giving up hope,” Ekapa Minerals General Manager Howard Marsden mentioned in a press release.

Mantashe mentioned in a separate assertion that an investigation could be carried out to seek out out what had occurred.

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South Africa’s authorities and mining business have been making efforts to cut back mine deaths and accidents, a part of a marketing campaign referred to as “Zero Harm”. Last yr the nation recorded its lowest-ever variety of mine deaths, 41.

Ekapa Minerals mentioned it had been briefing the households of the trapped miners, who held a vigil close to the mine on Thursday night time.

Kimberley, the place the mine is situated, was the location of a Nineteenth-century diamond rush that lured fortune-seekers from the world over.

Diamond revenues funded the expansion of South African business and gold mines, which themselves helped finance colonial ruler Britain by means of two world wars.