The illegal mining thread

dlk001 said:
Would love to visit a Manganese operation, especially underground one.

Coal mines, especially, Witbank are one of the safest. Is it underground or open cast?
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Manganese dust is dangerous though, and I just didn't fancy being covered in the stuff.

The coal mine would be an underground one - no point with opencast :)
 
Mila said:
Thanx. You know quiet a lot never knew which sector though.
We do work for all sectors but it is mainly the gold and platinum. These illegals are bad bad news. It is not talked about much but they are doing our country a great injury.

They go into mines and collect the carbon on the struts that keeps the mines up and causes collapses. You play with fire you will get burnt. No pity from me though.
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+1

They should consider themselves lucky that we waste government resources, our tax money, to rescue them.

I never knew about the struts. So, they now going to steal all the steel structure meant to support the mine beyond mine closure? Can you imagine that there are some buildings on top of those mined out area.
 
They loot the whole place, at some mines they are in cahoots with the security and go down into the mines with the normal miners. Not even just the abandoned mines.

Sorry I have no sympathy.
 
dlk001 said:
+1

They should consider themselves lucky that we waste government resources, our tax money, to rescue them.

I never knew about the struts. So, they now going to steal all the steel structure meant to support the mine beyond mine closure? Can you imagine that there are some buildings on top of those mined out area.
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Just means that rehabilitation must now include a concrete slab sealing the mine entrance.

Who is buying the unwrought gold?
 
IzZzy said:
The coal mine would be an underground one - no point with opencast :)
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I see you want all the action :D. Witbank mines are typically shallow and geology is good. You will probably be driving a bakkie from the shaft to the working area. Coal mines are pioneers of safety.

Make sure you have a dust musk and good soup to wash that coal.
 
Mila said:
They loot the whole place, at some mines they are in cahoots with the security and go down into the mines with the normal miners. Not even just the abandoned mines.

Sorry I have no sympathy.
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I have heard that, in South Deep for example, there are prostitutes that stay down for months at a time. The foreman keeps finding used condoms in the shafts. One of the reasons they are opposing biometric registers.
 
Garyvdh said:
"The men have undergone a medical check and were handed over to police."

"We had men who came halfway up the shaft but then turned around. Our rescue members cannot go down the shaft because it is too dangerous," he said.

He said food and water were sent down to the miners on Sunday, but they could be running low.

Gauteng police said on Monday that 11 illegal miners who were rescued had been charged.
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See, this is what pisses me off. While my car was being stoned this morning on R556 by striking miners, with no police presence, ambulances etc, some illegal miners are enjoying resources financed through my tax contribution.
 
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Miners-warned-that-access-hole-will-be-shut-20140217

Johannesburg - Authorities have sent communication to the illegal miners in the abandoned Gold One Kleinfontein Mine in Benoni that the access hole will be sealed on 3 March, according to EWN.

The Ekurhuleni emergency services could not be reached for comment.

It is unclear whether more illegal miners will resurface from the mine, authorities have said.

Emergency services officials say they convinced 11 men to leave the mine earlier on Monday, making 22 the number of rescued miners.

EWN reports that up to 300 men could still be stuck underground.

Officials say that a rival group may have barricaded the miners in on Saturday while trying to rob them of their gold.

The illegal miners were found on Sunday while emergency services were conducting operations around illegal mining in the area. They heard screaming from the abandoned mine.

Rescue workers abandoned their rescue mission on Sunday evening after the remaining men refused to be brought to the surface.

It is said that the miners would rather stay down in the shaft than come to the surface and face arrest.
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Really dumb idea that.
 
Not really. If they don't want to come out, they will most possibly never come out.
 
Hopes for more illegal miners to surface

Ekurhuleni emergency services said they were hoping for another 10 to 15 illegal miners to voluntarily surface from inside an abandoned Gold One mine shaft in Benoni on the East Rand on Tuesday.

With the search for miners suspended, rescue technician David Tshabalala said rescue workers and the SA Police Service would meet to discuss what to do next.

The community of illegal miners was discovered on Sunday when Ekurhuleni metro police were patrolling the area and heard screaming from the abandoned mine.

A rival group threw boulders down the open mine shaft, trapping the miners underground, said ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak.

Eleven people were rescued at the time and arrested.

They are expected to appear in the Benoni Magistrate's Court on Tuesday on charges of illegal mining.

The miners appeared to be reluctant to surface, fearing they too would be arrested and on Monday one of the 22 who had surfaced returned underground to talk to his colleagues to convince them to surface too.

It is unclear how many are still underground.

Tshabalala said the mineral resources department plans to close the opened shaft in a bid to stop illegal mining, and gave the miners notice about this on Monday.

"We will give those underground ample time to get out, but will have to close it," he said.

By 6.15pm on Monday, emergency services suspended their operations with police and mine security planning to remain overnight.

He said the 11 who resurfaced on Monday were not injured. They were handed to police after medical checks.

Tshabalala said it was unclear how many illegal miners were still underground because those who resurfaced could not provide them with numbers. Earlier he said some of the illegal miners came halfway up the shaft, but then turned around.

Rescuers could not go down the shaft because it was too dangerous.

"There is an opening and we sent a chain down that we can pull them up with," he said.

Food and water was sent down to the miners on Sunday, but they could be running low.


Source : Sapa /kd/tk/jje
Date : 18 Feb 2014 08:38
 
Arthur said:
What give the State the right to arrogate these things to itself? To define itself as the owner and arbiter? It is not found in any principle of jurisprudence or the natural law. It is a power grab by Caesar. What's astonishing to me is that most people just roll over and accept it, even support it. They just cannot imagine a world without an omnipotent and omnicompetent State. Which is probably why we deserve the tyranny that's coming.
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There's a religious irony in here somewhere...

But yes, I otherwise agree with Arthur's sentiment: desperate people do anything to survive. If some of you think that many of them don't have a family waiting for them that they're trying to support and that, if they had a choice, they wouldn't be down a mine shaft in a million years, you need to open your eyes.

Nobody risks their lives without a reason.

I feel incredibly sorry for these guys--their lives can't be easy.
 
Not related to this particular story but I found it interesting: http://www.jhblive.com/kultcha/118399


Mila said:
They loot the whole place, at some mines they are in cahoots with the security and go down into the mines with the normal miners. Not even just the abandoned mines.

Sorry I have no sympathy.
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Would you prefer they come and take the finished products straight from you? Do you think it's an easy choice for them to do what they do rather than just robbing idiots like yourself?
 
Not supporting criminals. Supporting people.

The nature and extent of their criminality is still to be established. In the meantime we do all we can to save them.

But even if they were criminals in prison, we should endeavour to save them from life-threatening calamities. If a fire breaks out in a prison, we call the fire brigade.

Of course justice requires that they pay the just price for their crimes, if any. Not more, and not less.
 
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It is said that the miners would rather stay down in the shaft than come to the surface and face arrest.
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So do we need to send inexperienced police down there to a ) get lost b) get attacked c) held hostage ?

I don't want anyone to die here but they aren't making it particularly easy for anyone to recuse them.
 
daveza said:
But they prefer to stay down there.
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What do they prefer it to? Just think of the reality of their lives and their experience and expectation of our present laws and justice. I can understand why they are more than a little reluctant to hand themselves over to the State.
 
Arthur said:
What do they prefer it to? Just think of the reality of their lives and their experience and expectation of our present laws and justice. I can understand why they are more than a little reluctant to hand themselves over to the State.
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They prefer it to going through the legal process and possibly ending up in jail.

The options are to leave them there and wait for them all to die, or to wait for them to come out on their own.
 
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