‘Illegal miners die’

Harare – At least 23 illegal miners are trapped and feared dead in Zimbabwe after shafts and underground tunnels they were working in were flooded by water from a burst dam, a state-owned daily newspaper reported yesterday.

The Zimbabwe government has been working to regulate thousands of people who illegally dig for gold everywhere, including on farms and abandoned mines, mostly under the cover of darkness.

The Herald said illegal miners in Battlefields, 175km west of Harare, had entered shafts on land owned by RioZim and another firm on Tuesday night in search of gold, but a dam wall nearby collapsed, flooding the shafts and tunnels.

“Chances of rescuing any survivors are very slim,” the paper quoted Fortunate Muzulu, the administrator for the area, as saying.

Muzulu told The Herald that government officials had asked for bigger pumps from platinum miner Zimplats to drain water to retrieve bodies.