RESCUE teams were by last night still to make a breakthrough in their mission to extricate 11 miners who were trapped at Redwing Mine.
Last night, authorities confirmed that Redwing Mine is owned by Metallon Gold, and had been tributing mining claims to individuals and private companies — killing off claims that it belonged to private miner, Betterbrands Mining — which had already said the accident had not happened on its side.
Efforts to get a comment from Metallon Gold were fruitless as it had not done so at the time of going to print. However, Mines minister Soda Zhemu and the police last night confirmed that at least 11 miners were trapped at the company’s mine in Penhalonga, Manicaland Province, after a mineshaft collapsed on them. “Eleven people are suspected to be trapped underground about 20 meters below the surface.
Cause of the collapse of the mine shaft is suspected to be an earth tremor whose source is yet to be ascertained. The miners are suspected to have entered the mine through different shafts,” Zhemu told a press conference.
“The rescue team of Metallon Gold at Redwing Mine together with inspectors from our (Manicaland) provincial office went underground at around 09:00hrs attempting to rescue and had to retreat after noticing the ground still carving in.
“The team tried again at around 12:00hrs and noticed that the ground had collapsed more. More cracks developed on the surface and subsidence was noticed on the surface around the mine.
“The ground is still curving in. It appears the miners had mined out support pillars. Of concern is the fact that the ground at this place is visibly cracking and subsiding and, therefore, is unsafe. They will resume rescue activities tomorrow morning (today),” Zhemu further told journalists.
He said that Metallon Gold had indicated that it had sufficient capacity to carry out the rescue mission. “I have established that Metallon Gold Redwing has been tributing mining claims at Redwing even to individuals.
“The shaft that collapsed was under some individuals and the people trapped were workers of the tribute. Management of tributed areas falls under the principal owner, Metallon Gold,” Zhemu added.