(21 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stilfontein, South Africa – 21 January 2025
1. Wide shot of mine rescue workers pulling the cage from a shaft in Stilfontein
2. Medium shot of mine rescue workers removing chains strapped on the cage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mannas Fourie CEO of Mines Rescue Services South Africa:
++ PART COVERED BY SHOTS 4&5++
“The cage has been developed to transport 6 people at that depth. Being the reason is that at that depth, you can only load a certain amount of weight. Being working at 1,280m enabled us to load more people into the conveyance because there’s less rope weight which is being pulled by the machine. And for that reason, we then pushed to load as many people as we could, and it was nice to see that we could load 13 people. It made it so much quicker to get the people out.”
4. Wide shot of trainees at the Mine Rescue entering a mock-up shaft for training
5. Close up of a mine rescue instructor assisting the trainees to gear up
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stillfontein, South Africa – 16 January 2025
6. Wide of mine rescue workers inspecting the cage from the surface.
7. Close up of mine rescue workers inspecting the footage from the cage.
8. Wide of mine rescue workers and cage
STORYLINE:
A specialized mine rescue camera was lowered late last year into an almost 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) deep mineshaft in South Africa, where hundreds of illegal miners were reported to be trapped, starving, dehydrated and desperate to get out.
With no architectural plans of the actual mineshaft and its levels and tunnels, the camera reached 1,280 meters (4,200 feet) underground and gave rescuers their first visuals: A large group of illegal miners is seen standing around on a level, clearly waiting for help to arrive.
Rescuers brought the camera back to the surface and then sent it back underground, this time with a notepad, pen and a letter attached to initiate communication with the miners.
Once it reached them, the miners immediately also attached a note telling the rescuers that about 480 of them were underground and those still alive were desperate to exit the mine.
This would mark the beginning of discussions to explore various options of how to bring the miners back up to the surface.
It would be the first time a specially designed cage that can be lowered as deep as 3,100 meters (10,170 feet) fitted with specialized cameras and a communications system, was used to rescue such a large number of people underground.
The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in the abandoned gold mine rose to at least 87, police said last week.
Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and bring them out of the mine by cutting off their food supplies.
The deceased miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.
South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine.
That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.
According to Fourie, who led the operation at the mineshaft, once the cage was lowered with two volunteers from the community, they managed to reach their target of retrieving at least 35 miners a day.
About 57 round trips are estimated to have been made to retrieve the eventual number of 246 miners and 78 corpses.
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