South African police recover dozens of starved miners from abandoned Stilfontein mine

Over the past two days, South African authorities have recovered about 60 bodies of starved miners from the abandoned Stilfontein gold mine. More than 100 miners involved in illegal gold mining were brought to the surface alive and arrested.

Police began laying siege to the mine in August 2024 and cut off food and water supplies for months in an attempt to force some 1,500 miners to come to the surface so they could be arrested as part of a crackdown on illegal mining.

On Monday, authorities began lifting people and bodies from the more than 2 km deep mine using a metal cage. The operation is expected to last several more days.