8 Workers Die, 57 Missing in S. Africa Mine

An elevator carrying dozens of gold miners apparently plunged to the bottom of a 4,511-foot mine shaft today, mine officials said. At least eight men died and 57 were missing.

Mine manager Gregory Maude said the missing men were believed to have been in the elevator that fell after a cable snapped.

Rescuers reported finding five men alive and eight dead at a small pumping station off the main shaft about 2,227 feet underground, said Harry Hill, spokesman for General Mining Union Corp., known as Gencor.

Maude, manager of the St. Helena gold mine in Welkom, 140 miles southwest of Johannesburg, said that before the survivors and bodies were found, rescue workers heard voices coming from the pumping station.

The mining company reported at one point that 92 miners were trapped by an explosion. But Maude said later he was not certain an explosion had occurred.

“We’re not even sure that there was in fact an explosion,” he said. “It could have been something large falling down the shaft. At the moment we don’t know what happened.”

The accident occurred as thousands of black miners were returning to their jobs following a nationwide strike. (Story, Page 4.).