JOHANNESBURG - South African rescuers have recovered the bodies of five miners a day after a quake caused tunnels to collapse at a gold mine near Johannesburg trapping 10 people, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
"The bodies of three miners were brought out today in addition to two yesterday and the five others have been rescued," said Willie Jacobsz, spokesman for Gold Fields, which owns the mine at Driefontein, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Johannesburg.
"We have started arrangements with families of the dead and injured for assistance for funeral arrangements or treatment and then to go into all the financial details."
"Starting tomorrow, there will be a formal investigation conducted by the department of minerals and energy and all the trade unions and ourselves which will last a few weeks," he said.
Tuesday's quake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale shook the mine at 7:38 am (0538 GMT), trapping 10 miners approximately 2,000 meters underground at the mine's number 2 shaft.
Meanwhile, Gwede Mantashe, the secretary general of the National Union of Mineworkers told the SAPA news agency that mining fatalities in the country remained very high.
"Over the last few years there has been a visible improvement but it can improve further," he said.
The South African Communist Party also expressed concern about safety standards in the industry.
"We are gravely concerned because it is clear that safety of workers does not seem to be a priority to the mining management," a party statement said.
"The SACP supports the National Union of Mineworkers in calling on the management to take seriously the safety of workers by ensuring that all the cracks and other life threatening conditions are removed as a matter of urgency."
A quake that hit a pit in Stilfontein, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Johannesburg on March 9 killed one miner and left 38 others trapped underground for about 12 hours.
05/11/2005 12:36 GMT