{"id":50334,"date":"2023-06-23T11:23:06","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T11:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine"},"modified":"2023-06-23T13:17:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T13:17:18","slug":"31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine","title":{"rendered":"31 suspected illegal miners believed to be dead at Welkom mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Thirty-one suspected illegal miners, allegedly Basotho nationals, are believed to have died at a ventilation shaft at a mine in Virginia, Welkom, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The department said the Lesotho Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations informed the High Commission of South Africa about the deaths.<\/p>\n

The suspected illegal miners apparently died on 18 May 2023 in a mine ventilation shaft that was last operational in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

“Although information on this tragic situation comes sporadically, we are doing our utmost best to act on the information, including information regarding three bodies which have been reported to be retrieved and brought to the surface by other illegal miners.<\/p>\n

“Working in collaboration with the previous owners of the mine, Harmony, the DMRE inspectors have assessed the situation and determined that methane levels at the mine ventilation Shaft 5 are very high.<\/p>\n

“As such, it is currently too risky to dispatch a search team to the shaft. However, we are considering various options to speedily deal with the situation,” the department said.<\/p>\n

It added that all relevant stakeholders would endeavour to ensure that the suspected deceased illegal miners are brought to the surface.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Thirty-one suspected illegal miners, allegedly Basotho nationals, are believed to have died at a ventilation shaft at a mine in Virginia, Welkom, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) said on Thursday. The department said the Lesotho Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations informed the High Commission of South Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,2372,335,764,275,5603],"class_list":["post-50334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-crime-and-courts","tag-free-state","tag-mining","tag-south-africa-2","tag-welkom"],"yoast_head":"\n31 suspected illegal miners believed to be dead at Welkom mine - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thirty-one suspected illegal miners, allegedly Basotho nationals, are believed to have died at a ventilation shaft at a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"31 suspected illegal miners believed to be dead at Welkom mine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thirty-one suspected illegal miners, allegedly Basotho nationals, are believed to have died at a ventilation shaft at a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-23T11:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-23T13:17:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/06\/sm_1687509738.269011.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"31 suspected illegal miners believed to be dead at Welkom mine\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-23T11:23:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-23T13:17:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\"},\"wordCount\":219,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/06\/sm_1687509738.269011.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"crime and courts\",\"free state\",\"mining\",\"South-Africa\",\"welkom\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/31-suspected-illegal-miners-believed-to-be-dead-at-welkom-mine\",\"name\":\"31 suspected illegal miners believed to be dead at Welkom mine - 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