Johannesburg - Many were relieved when is was announced that almost 500 miners were rescued after being trapped in one of Harmony Gold's Kusasalethu shafts for an entire day.
The Carltonville mine first fell into panic when it was announced that a fire had broken out underground at around 9am, with 486 miners trapped.
Harmony Gold spokeswoman Charmane Russell said the 2.3km-deep fire would be investigated, but was grateful that the refuge bays placed every 500m helped the stranded miners.
Russell said: "Clearly any incident of this nature is significant and there will be an investigation into the root cause of the incident and take a look at where measures in place were adequate. We do see many things that have worked which I think is very important to take away. The training clearly came to bay today as miners made their way to refuge bays. The refuge bays in place worked.
The rescue took more than 12 hours which Russell said was caused by the distances travelled by the rescue teams, who went more than 3 500m beneath the surface, and the time it took to control the fire. Rescue teams came from as far as Rustenburg.
"We had enormous co-operation from mine rescue services. The team worked tirelessly throughout the day and throughout the night to conduct the rescue operation and also to contain the fire. There are many things that have worked," said Russell.
When The Star visited the mine, as the last group of miners were being rescued, ambulances could be seen arriving and leaving the M/M shaft at regular 10-minute intervals and miners were taken to medical stations.
Though refuge bays had water, air and communication, there was no food for the miners who had been stuck there all day.
Russell she didn't know if any families were looking for their loved ones, but said there are facilities they can use to call in and find out what was happening.
The Star met a worried family at the entrance of the Kusasalethu mine at 9pm who couldn't find their relative.
A worried wife said: "We just came from another medical centre and didn't find him there so we're trying to see if he's here."
The solemn group of five said they didn't know what was happening and were hoping to get some answers.
"We weren't told anything," said the woman, who didn't want to be named.
Soon after the family entered the mine, a mine employee exited and said he was sent home because the mine operations had been stopped.
He asked to remain anonymous but said that the mine overseer was turning miners back.
"He told us about the trapped miners and said some of them had suffered from smoke inhalation."
He said most of the trapped miners live in the mine hostel or nearby townships like Wedela and Khutsong.
The Star