Update: Memorial service for deceased miners

A memorial service will be held tomorrow to honour the lives of employees who died in an underground accident at the company’s Doornkop Gold Mine last week, according to a media statement released by the company.

Miner’s bodies found

6 February

A statement released has confirmed that the bodies of eight missing miners have been found.

One miner’s body has still not been found.

Miners trapped in Doornkop mine fire

Seventeen miners from Harmony Gold are trapped in the Doornkop mine near Krugersdorp after an underground fire broke out last night, 4 February.

The fire was reported to have occurred at around 6pm in a stope about 1 733 metres underground.

Rescue teams immediately were dispatched underground, but access to the affected areas is being hampered by smoke and subsequent fall of ground, the company says in a statement.

Charmaine Russell, managing director at Russell and Associates who oversees the public relations aspect of Harmony Gold is also on the scene. She says contact has been made with eight employees in a refuge bay and efforts are being made to bring them to the surface.

The whereabouts of a further nine employees are not known yet.

Operations at the mine have been suspended.

In August last year a Harmony Gold miner died after suffering severe injuries following an underground rail-bound accident.