The South African government spent just over R30 million retrieving suspects involved in illegal mining at the Buffelsfontein ...

Their lights illuminated a sea of emaciated faces, men crowded into a chamber who were crying and pleading to be saved from the pitch black of the abandoned Buffelsfontein gold mine. The miners ...

the police began blocking food and water from entering the old Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near Stilfontein in the North West province of South Africa, in an effort to force the illegal miners back ...

Of the 1,826 "zama zamas" or illegal miners arrested in the Vala Umgodi operation at the Buffelsfontein gold mine in ...

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said it was false to claim government refused to rescue zama zamas ...

As Operation Vala Umgodi nears its end, the need for setting up a permanent, specialist police unit to combat illegal mining ...

Police said the miners were refusing to come out of the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine for fear of arrest, but Mnguni said they had been left trapped underground after police removed the ropes they used ...

POTCHEFSTROOM — The process to identify 93 bodies of suspected illegal miners retrieved from Buffelsfontein Gold Mine' shaft No. 11 between Tuesday, 03 December 2024 and Wednesday 15 January ...

They were printed in four languages – English, isiXhosa, Sotho and Tsonga – and read: ‘We urge all miners to exit at Margaret Shaft as it is the safest existing exit.’ Lepheana was trapped in Shaft 11 ...

The Buffelsfontein incident in South Africa, where 246 illegal miners were trapped underground, underscores the need for improved security governance at abandoned mining sites.

The operation to force the miners out of the Buffelsfontein mine that started last year was part of a larger one that resulted in more than 1,500 illegal miners surfacing from mines and being ...