There are believed to be no more illegal miners trapped underground at a gold mine in South Africa, volunteers working with rescue teams said.
At least 78 bodies and more than 200 survivors have been recovered since Monday after a court ordered the government to ease rescue operations at the mine, the site of one of the most unusual tragedies to hit the industry.
Police said they would check that no one was left behind on Thursday, when a rescue cage would be sent to the mine.
The standoff began in November when the government ordered police to arrest any miners who surfaced, saying it was determined to stop illegal mining.
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During Tuesday’s visit, police and mining ministers were insulted by an angry crowd who blamed the government for the death and were told to leave.
Police said more than 1,500 miners surfaced before the rescue operation began, Reuters news agency reports.
However, others remained underground, either because they feared arrest or because gangs controlling the mine forced them to stay there.
A spokesman for the South African Police Service said of the volunteer’s statement that no one was underground yet: “We will be relying on the Mine Rescue Service to confirm this with their state-of-the-art equipment which will hopefully be able to provide a picture of what is going on underground.
“The Miners Rescue Service has confirmed that they will send a cage underground in the morning to see if any illegal miners emerge with the cage. We cannot say for sure that the operation has been suspended at this stage.”
Many mines in the Republic of South Africa have been abandoned in the last three decades by companies that did not consider them economically viable.
The mines have been taken over by gangs, often ex-employees, who sell the minerals they find on the black market.
These include a mine in Stilfontein, some 145 km (90 miles) southwest of the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, which has been at the center of government efforts to crack down on the illegal industry.
A rescue cage was being lowered down the shaft to reach a crowd of miners believed to be at least 2km (1.2 miles) underground.
Many of the survivors had been without food and water since November, leaving them exhausted. They have now been given medical attention.
Authorities say they will be charged with illegal mining, trespassing and violating immigration laws, since most of the miners are undocumented migrants from neighboring countries.
“It’s a crime against the economy, it’s an attack on the economy,” Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday, defending the tough stance on miners.
South Africa relied heavily on miners from countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique before the industry collapsed.
Unemployment in South Africa is currently over 30% and many former miners say they have no alternative sources of income.
