All of the 955 miners who were trapped for more than twenty-four hours in the depths of a mine in South Africa, due to a power failure, came out at dawn on Friday, safe and sound, announced their employer.
“Everyone is out,” a spokesman for Sibanye Gold, James Wellsted, told told reports.
There were no casualties during the incident, “only a few cases of dehydration and high blood pressure, but nothing serious,” he added.
The miners were trapped in the Beatrix mine galleries near the town of Welkom in the middle of a violent thunderstorm on Wednesday night that cut off electricity and blocked the elevators of several wells on the farm.
After long hours of effort, the relief workers were able to fully restore the power and put back into service the lifts, which lifted the first miners to the surface at sunrise.
The stop of the lifts had prevented Thursday morning the rise of the night shift.
They “had a traumatic experience,” said the spokesman for the mine. Back in the open, they had to undergo a medical examination and receive psychological support, as well as their families.
Mine accidents are common in South Africa, which has the deepest mines in the world. In 2015, 77 people died there, according to the South African Chamber of Mines.
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