(Bloomberg) — Almost 500 workers in a mine run by Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd., South Africa’s third-largest producer of the metal, have been rescued after being trapped by a fire.
“They’re all out,” Charmane Russell, a spokeswoman for the company, said by phone. No injuries were reported, she said. Operations are halted at the site, which lies near Carletonville, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Johannesburg.
Harmony said 486 workers at the Kusasalethu mine, its biggest, were underground and 287 were confirmed to be safe in refuge bays after a blaze broke out. The fire started at 9:40 a.m. local time Sunday on the mine’s 75 level, about 2,300 meters (7,546 feet) below ground, the company said. The blaze may have begun during maintenance on an air cooler.
Harmony was forced to shut Kusasalethu, for two weeks in October last year after the company arrested more than 100 illegal miners and imposed new safety measures. Chief Executive Officer Graham Briggs announced a plan to turn the operation around in December to mine higher-grade ore and return to profit by the fiscal fourth quarter.
Last February, a rockfall at Harmony’s Doornkop site started a fire underground and killed nine workers, the most deaths in a single event in the company’s history.
