Photos: Four nearly buried alive near Creswell Park

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In their ongoing fight against the scourge of illegal mining, Roodepoort Police conducted a shaft-closing operation again yesterday (2 March), this time in the problem area of Creswell Park.

This comes after issuing the illegal miners with 30-day, 14-day and 24-hour notices. The day did not pass without high drama though.

At first the police wanted to close the shaft with an excavator but it never arrived. They subsequently instructed the contractor to use a front loader in order to drop a huge rock into the entrance in order to seal it. But just as the rock was dropped the contractor told the police they had heard screaming from inside the shaft. With the help of a number of illegal miners they managed to move the rock from the shaft entrance. The four illegal miners surfaced and were arrested on charges of illegal mining. In addition two were charged for being in the country illegally. The suspects told the police there were more miners underground.

The operation is continuing today (3 March).

Read more here

Another blow for illegal mining

Police continues to fight illegal mining