A shoot-out between illegal miners at Lily Mine in Lowscreek, outside Barberton in Mpumalanga has disrupted the mission of the former workers to go underground.
The workers are on a mission of retrieving the lamp container which sank underground after the mine collapsed four years ago.
The former workers representative, Harry Mazibuko told Daily Sun that they were supposed to go underground and carry on with their mission, but they could not, upon hearing that there was a shootout amongst the illegal miners last night.
A shoot-out between illegal miners at Lily Mine in Lowscreek, outside Barberton in Mpumalanga has disrupted the mission of the former workers to go underground. #LilyMine pic.twitter.com/iUjOOfqIHT
— Daily Sun (@dailysunsa) January 17, 2020
"We couldn't go underground today because we felt it was not safe for us. “We will continue with our mission when the dust settles. We know when there is so much gold they tend to fight," he said
Mpumalanga police spokesman, Brigadier Leonard Halthi said two people have been confirmed dead.
Hlathi said preliminary results suggests that the two illegal miners were stoned, however they are going to conduct a post-mortem.
"Currently what we can observe physically, is that they were severely stoned because it's not even easy to see them. We have already started with investigations with this matter, and we will go forward, “ he said.
Yesterday the department of Mineral Resources and Energy officials raised concerns about the illegal mining activities that were taking place while they were on site for inspections.
Hlathi said they have been calling on people to refrain from going in unused mines at it was unsafe.
“It has been proven that these people are putting themselves on danger, and they stage war around those areas because they are fighting for a common illegal goal, “ he said.
