THERE is hope that three miners trapped in a container that fell into the sink hole at Lily Mine in Mpumalanga on Friday, are still alive.
The rescue team heard knocking on Monday morning, Mine Rescue Services chief executive Christo de Klerk said.
"They heard knocking and decided to switch all the machines off to have absolute silence in the mine and knocked against some piping. A little while later there was a response from deep inside the mine," a News24 Correspondent reported.
Three employees, Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Mabuza and Solomon Nyarenda, were in a lamp room housed in a container when the central pillar of ore, called a crown pillar, collapsed on Friday. The container was swallowed up in a sink hole as big as a rugby field.
Seventy-six miners were rescued.
De Klerk told reporters on Sunday that the rescue packs in the lamp room each had 30 minutes of oxygen. The only water and food available to the three was what they had brought with them.
The rescue effort was being made from inside the mine, on level 5. Debris was being loaded onto trucks and driven out.
“We’re positive that we’re getting close to the container and that it’s only a matter of hours before we can get to them," he said.
Mike Begg, operations director at Vantage Goldfields, which owns the mine, said the families were told at 3am that there were signs of life from inside the container.
“We were all in tears. We are so thankful for this development."
Vantage Goldfields chief executive Mike McChesney said they hoped for the best.
"The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Lily and Vantage Goldfields are with the three missing workers, their families and the rescue teams. Our focus as management right now is on finding our colleagues.”
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/knock-knock-heard-from-underneath-lily-mine-20160208
