Photo by: Bloomberg
JOHANNESBURG – The body of the last miner missing following a fire in Harmony Gold's Doornkop mine was found on Friday, the Department of Mineral Resources said.
"This brings to nine the number of workers who lost their lives in the Doornkop incident," the department said in a statement.
On Tuesday a fire started on level 192, which is roughly 1700 m underground, after a seismic event triggered a fall of ground, damaging electric cables. The mine is about 30 km west of Johannesburg.
Eighteen people were reported missing at the end of the shift on Tuesday night. One miner surfaced in the early hours of Wednesday. He gave rescue workers the location of other miners he had seen underground. Eight miners were brought to the surface unharmed later on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the bodies of eight miners were taken to the surface.
On Friday, Harmony Gold said another two of its workers had died in separate accidents on Thursday afternoon. One was killed at the Kusasalethu mine, in the North West, and the other at its Joel mine, in the Free State.