Hundreds rescued after mine blaze

All 486 miners who were trapped underground at Harmony Gold's Kusasalethu mine were last night brought to the surface, a spokesman for company said.

"All the miners are out," Charmane Russell said last night. "Fortunately, things went according to plan."

According to a company statement, the fire at the mine near Carletonville, started nearly 2300m underground.

Harmony Gold said 486 miners were working in the Kusasalethu mine at the time.

Russell said all employees had been notified and advised to move to refuge bays.

"Our employees have been trained for this," she said.

Earlier in the day rescue teams desperately tried to reach hundreds of miners that were trapped underground.

Kusasalethu is Harmony's biggest mine.

South Africa has some of the deepest mines in the world, but the greater the depth the more difficult rescue attempts become.

The blaze is believed to have started during maintenance work on an air cooler, the company said.

The supply of air to the fire was cut off. "About 330 of the 486 workers [known to have been underground] were confirmed to be safe in refuge bays, which are supplied with fresh air, water and telephone communication to the surface," Harmony said.

President Jacob Zuma and Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi were last night concerned about the incident.

According to Ramatlhodi's adviser advocate Mahlodi Muofhe there will be a full investigation from government side.

Mine rescue teams from Harmony and other mines in the area worked around the clock to help the miners in the refuge bays and to locate the missing workers.

The National Union of Mineworkers said it had been in constant contact with some of the workers and had remained confident that they would survive.

NUM safety officer Samuel Dlamini said the union had received information that the fire started after a fan stopped working.

Dlamini said workers were not mining in the area where the fire started. He urged mining houses to constantly improve safety measures for workers underground.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which represents most of the workers at Kusasalethu, was not available for comment.

All operations at the mine were suspended yesterday apart from those related to the rescue efforts.

Kusasalethu employs about 6000 people, Russell said.