South Africa's Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, center, visits an abandoned gold mine where miners are rescued from below ground ...

Surviving on a diet of toothpaste and toilet paper, South Africa's notorious "zama-zama" illegal miners continue a weeks-long standoff with police in the darkness of a disused gold mine.

Community members are searched by South African police before entering the mine shaft to negotiate with unlicensed miners underground in Stilfontein, in South Africa's North West province, Nov. 13 ...

Rescue workers, left, remove a body from a reformed mineshaft where illegal miners are inside in Stilfontein, South Africa on Thursday. Jerome Delay/AP hide caption ...

Detained after being accused of controlling the illegal operations at an abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein in South Africa ...

Hundreds of miners remain underground at Stilfontein after “several months” of an operation blocking food, water and necessities, South African Police Service spokeswoman Brig. Athlenda Mathe ...

The miners have been holed underground for weeks after police say they broke into a closed mine shaft in Stilfontein, a mining town around 95 miles from Johannesburg.

Three artisanal miners who recently emerged from abandoned mine shafts in Stilfontein in North West have told the Constitutional Court about the abhorrent conditions underground. The NGO Mining ...

Authorities have claimed that no illegal miners remain underground at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein, North West. The government-funded rescue mission, led by the Mine Rescue Services ...

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) — Months after South African authorities initially cut off supplies to miners working illegally in an abandoned gold mine, rescuers brought dozens of bodies and ...

Police officers and volunteer rescuers stand by the opening of a reformed gold mineshaft where illegal miners are trapped in Stilfontein, South Africa, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024.

Stilfontein will and must be remembered as one of the worst tragedies we have witnessed in the 30 years of democracy in South Africa. From August last year, 87 artisanal miners were deserted and ...