Ekapa mine rescue operation expected to run longer

The complex rescue operation to bring back to surface five trapped miners at the Ekapa mine in Kimberly is expected run longer as experts run into some trouble underground.

A technical team is in a race against time to save the mine workers who have been trapped since Tuesday, following a mudslide nearly a kilometre underground.

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe visited the plant today to meet with mine management and the senior team behind the rescue operation.

During his oversight visit to the Ekapa mine in the Northern Cape, Mantashe told the media that the rising water levels underground continue to complicate the operation.

He said the Council for Geoscience has been roped in to provide geological expertise to help identify the source of the water influx and recommendations on how to address the issue at its origin.

"That is where the biggest problem is, and the second one is drilling that is being done is quite far from where the bodies are, and everybody estimates where the bodies are. And we hope that we can find those bodies, uh, rather than keeping a hope that they are alive."

While cautious on his prognosis, Mantashe said it doesn’t look good.

"If you are away from the 17th to today in a mad rush, as a mineworker, I can tell you that I would easily do what I call presumption of death and assume that they are dead," said Mantashe.

He said any mine accident that takes more than four lives can be labelled a disaster.