An uneasy calm returned to Lonmin's troubled Marikana mine in the North West late on Thursday after a shooting that left at least 18 people dead or wounded.
Paramedics were attending to those who were hit during a shoot-out between striking miners and the police.
Policemen involved in the shooting were returning to their bases as two helicopters circled the area.
The area around a hill where the strikers gathered before the shooting was cordoned off with barbed wire.
Police were not immediately available to comment on the number of dead and wounded in Thursday's shooting.
A Sapa reporter on the scene counted 18 people lying on the ground.
The shooting erupted when police sought to disperse armed striking workers from the hill in the area.
Ten people, including two security guards and two police officers, had already been killed in violent protests at the mine in the past week. - Sapa