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After being trapped underground in western Tanzania for 41 days, five gold miners have been rescued. On October 5th, a group of 20 miners were in a pit when a shaft they were working on collapsed. 14 of them managed to escape while six were trapped – one of the miners died underground.
Digging for gold
The miners were digging for gold in the northwestern Shinyanga region. Tanzania is the fourth largest gold producer in Africa. In order to make a living, villagers will often dig small gold mines. When they are able to find gold, they sell it to dealers and live off the money as long as they can before going back into the mines to look for more gold. However, these mines are incredibly harsh to work in. The areas are mostly unregulated and have no health and safety considerations. It is common for these artisanal mines to collapse. The miners usually have very basic tools and do not have the ability to properly secure the deep and narrow shafts they dig. Workers are willing to bear the conditions of the mines in hopes of finding a large amount of gold; the dream of getting rich is worth the struggle for them.
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The miners shared the details of living underground
When the shaft first collapsed, the miners had some sources of light from their helmet lamps and mobile phones. But the power for those ran out. Rescued miner Chacha Wambura said:
“Batteries of the torches and flashlights ran out and we ended up in a cave that we earlier used as a store for our tools.” They were determined to survive. “We survived by eating cockroaches, frogs and other insects as well as drinking dirty water that seeped in from above,” Wambura shared.
Other miners heard them calling for help
The miners were stuck at about 100m underground. Local police commander Justus Kamugisha said that the group was presumed dead and hopes of finding them had faded until other miners going down a different shaft heard voices of people calling out for help.
“The men left the mines as they thought the voices were evil spirits, but they reported it to the local officials, and they remembered the miners who had been trapped some days earlier,” Kamugisha said.
Rescue efforts were resumed and the five miners were finally freed. “We are still trying to locate the body of the dead miner, who is said to have died 15 days before the rescue operations,” Kamugisha said. This is one of the longest periods that miners have been trapped underground. The miners were very weak when they emerged and are currently recovering at a hospital.
SEE ALSO: A Reality Show Turned Tanzanian Female Farmers Into Celebrities.
