The bodies of 16 illegal miners were recovered and scores of survivors were rescued in three mining accidents that reflect a worsening problem of illegal mining in South Africa.
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has summoned a task team in reaction to the accidents, to seal access points at mines and try to stem the dangerous practice.
Shabangu said illegal mining costs the economy an estimated R5-billion a year and the government is concerned.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said many gangs are mining illegally and exporting minerals.
Mining groups said illegal miners, many recruited from poor communities and neighbouring countries like Lesotho and Mozambique, are driven to sites at night in bakkies and taxis and enter the diggings under cover of darkness.
They often work in tunnels that have been closed down and deserted by legal mining operations, scooping out leftover ore. Many spend weeks underground in highly dangerous conditions.
Illegal mining first became an issue in 1999 and has since escalated. The SAPS's Colonel Sam Magale said illegal miners are arrested weekly in the Free State goldfields.
NUM's Seshoka said illegal miners often operate in extremely dangerous places, where there is no mine maintenance and minimal safety and other equipment.
Making headlines in recent years were the 86 illegal miners who died after inhaling poisonous gas at Harmony Gold's Eland Shaft near Welkom three years ago.
Then there were the fatal shootings of several illegal miners at the troubled Aurora Empowerment Systems' Grootvlei mine last year.
Many incidents go unreported and unrecorded, while the problem keeps getting worse.
This week rescue teams pulled 22 people, nine of them dead, from a gold mine previously operated by Harmony Gold.
Magale said it was hard to tell how many more illegal miners were trapped.
In the Northern Cape, sevenillegal miners were found dead and there were an estimated 15 still underground after an attempt to tunnel into the Bontekou diamond mine in Kleinzee.
The mine borders the De Beers Namaqualand mine. The illegal miners were trapped or buried alive.
De Beers stopped operations at Namaqualand about three years ago pending the mines' R225-million sale to Trans Hex.
An attempt was made to seal off access to the mines last month after it was discovered that illegal miners were working in the tunnels.
The NUM said mining companies need to do more to stop illegal miners entering mines and to ensure that mines are safely and securely closed.
Although these properties had fencing, alarm systems and security patrols, the illegal miners still managed to find their way in, as one mining house pointed out.
In cases where illegal miners are trapped underground, mining companies usually have to pick up the tab for rescue operations.
Illegal miners are not included in official mine fatality figures, which show that 43 legally employed miners have lost their lives in the country's mines since January.
Since the first mine fatality was recorded in South Africa in 1904, about 5400 miners have died.
- Business Live
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