3,200 Miners Stuck Underground ( South Africa)

sky news ^

[maquiladora]

Thousands Trapped In SA Gold Mine Updated: 21:39, Wednesday October 03, 2007

Three thousand workers are trapped in a gold mine near Johannesburg, in South Africa. More follows...

[Abathar]

A mile down? Unfortunately dwelling on that won’t let me get to sleep tonight...

[knittnmom]

I’ll be praying for them.

[RightWhale]

Unbelieveable that many down in the mine. Will any make it out?

[griffin]

prayers up....

[LdSentinal]

Oh no.

Prayers for a quick rescue.

[Spktyr]

It’s not due to a collapse, it’s just that the “elevator” is broken and they have to reconfigure another “elevator” to allow them to exit safely. Nobody’s beem hurt, they just can’t get out.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

(AP) Johannesburg, South Africa. A truck loaded with food preparing to dump its
load down a mine shaft to 3,200 miners trapped below.

[stevio]

God be with them.

[txhurl]

But their umbilical is OK? O2 is still pumping down? And A/C?

[Spktyr]

I’d assume so, no mention of any other damage in the article.

[MEGoody]

3,200! Oh my gosh! Prayers for the miners and their families.

[Ditto]

But their umbilical is OK? O2 is still pumping down? And A/C?

That would be my concern too.

[djf]

A friend of mine got a chance to go into one of the BIG - I mean REALLY BIG silver mines in Nevada. Maybe one having to do with the Comstock lode or something.

He said it was jaw dropping... dozens of levels, huge shafts that had been put in just for airflow, running streams underground and running hot water and sinks, bunks because some guys would just stay down there.

Pretty impressive. A guy could live down there for a long time.

[Aristotelian]

BBC reports:

The 2.2km (1.4mile) shaft was blocked near the bottom, trapping the workers.

Rescuers are trying to use an adjacent shaft to rescue the miners, a spokeswoman for the mine’s owner, Harmony Gold Mining, said.

The accident happened at about 0800 GMT and there has been no communication with the miners since then, she said.

[pandoraou812]

Prayers for the miners & their families

[RDTF]

Fox just confirmed this - 3200 people

[Pontiac]

A burst water pipe is thought to have caused a shaft to collapse

I wonder how much water poured in to the mine before they isolated the burst pipe.

Another question in my mind is when the pipe burst did it take out the power supply to the pumps that keep water out of the mine.

[headsonpikes]

My heart goes out to their families - what a nightmare!

[doorgunner69]

3,200 miners a mile beneath the surface? I have a hard time grappling with the image of that.

And only one mineshaft?