"We have identified the position where the bodies are. We need to put in a bigger fan to suck air and explosive and poisonous gases out of the mine.
"Once that fan is operating we will restart the rescue-and-recovery operations. We will send the mine rescue services down in teams," he said.
The Gloria mine forms part of the Optimum Coal assets bought by the Gupta family in 2016. They were put into business rescue early in 2018.
Several illegal miners were trapped underground after a gas explosion on February 6 while they were stripping cables at the mine, which has been closed for several months.
Initially, the bodies of five miners were recovered. It is unclear how many miners are still trapped underground.