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People watch as Senzo Mchunu, South African police minister (not pictured), inspects outside the mineshaft where it is estimated that hundreds of illegal miners are believed to be hiding ...
Zama zamas are illegal artisanal miners in South Africa who occupy closed or operational mines to mine for minerals such as gold, iron ore, coal, and manganese. The term zama zama loosely translates to "take a chance" in isiZulu and they use rudimentary tools and explosives for mining.
A South African court ordered police to end a standoff with illegal miners to allow emergency workers to gain access to a mine shaft where several hundred are believed to remain after the ...
South Africa's illegal miners – called zama zamas, or "take a chance" in colloquial Zulu – are estimated to number more than 50,000, a tenfold increase in two decades.
Rescuers and South African Police Service (SAPS) officers carry remains in blue body bags during a rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold shaft in Stilfontein on ...
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 100 men who were mining illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa have died of suspected starvation and dehydration after being trapped deep underground for months while police tried to force them out, a group representing the miners said Monday.
Illegal gold miners, commonly referred to as "zama zamas", operate in abandoned mine shafts and use the empty gas cylinders, known as "phendukas", to process the stolen ore. The cylinders, often stolen, are first drained of gas, then cut open so that ore can be placed in them along with a steel ball which crushes the ore as the cylinder is rotated.
At least 31 people are suspected to have died in a methane gas explosion at a disused gold mine in South Africa around the third week of May in 2023. [3] [2] [4] [5] [6]The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) reported late on 22 June 2023 that the miners had died in a mining shaft at the abandoned Virginia mine in Welkom, Free State.