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 ...

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.

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

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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 ...

Ntsokolo, a 40-year-old father of six children, survived underground for 18 days with no food except scraps of expired goods.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...