An illegal miner is trapped in a mine shaft at the old Durban Deep Mine in Dobsonville, a day after rescue efforts began

On Thursday, emergency workers received a call for assistance from the mine rescue team from Carletonville, as it is their jurisdiction, said Johannesburg emergency services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi.

“They came and they used their camera to locate the trapped person.” 

Rescuers learned that the shaft had been extended, and that the area where the trapped miner was, was beyond the mine rescue team’s area of operation.

Mulaudzi said emergency services required permission from the department of mineral and energy affairs to give the rescuers the go ahead to start their operation.

“We are still waiting for that update. We are looking at sometime today,” he said.

The trapped miner was one of five known to have been in the shaft. The other four had returned to the surface.

He entered the mine through an unused shaft which had been cordoned off.

Mulaudzi appealed to illegal miners to stop what they were doing because they were putting themselves at risk.

“We have been receiving a lot of incidents where miners are trapped in shafts,” he said.