All 1,800 Trapped Sibanye Miners Are Rescued, Government Says

(Bloomberg) -- All 1,800 workers who had been trapped at a Sibanye Gold Ltd. underground platinum mine in South Africa have been brought to the surface, the Department of Mineral Resources said in a tweet.

Efforts had been under way to hoist up those remaining after an accident had blocked a shaft used to transport miners, James Wellsted, Sibanye's spokesman, said earlier in the evening. The company had been trying to bring them to the surface since 2 p.m. local time.

Workers had congregated at pick-up points about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) underground after an accident with their transport system, he said, adding no serious injuries had been reported.

The incident revives concerns about safety at Sibanye, which last year suffered a spike in fatal accidents at its gold mines. About 1,000 workers were also trapped underground for more than a day at one of the producer's operations in February 2018 after a storm damaged power supplies in the area. South Africa, which is the world's biggest platinum producer, has the deepest mines in the world.

Sibanye shares closed 2.8 percent lower at 13.45 rand in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Felix Njini in Johannesburg at fnjini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, ;Luzi Ann Javier at ljavier@bloomberg.net, Steven Frank, Catherine Traywick

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