JOHANNESBURG — A South African mining company official says the bodies of 15 more illegal gold miners have been found, bringing to 76 the number of deaths following an underground fire in an abandoned shaft.
Tom Smith, chief of operations for Harmony Gold’s southern region, said the bodies were found by miners starting work today at the mine’s Eland shaft in central South Africa.
They had been left by other illegal miners at an underground station.
Over the weekend, 36 prospectors died, and on Tuesday another 25 bodies were brought to the surface.
Illegal miners are hired through organized crime rackets that produce about $250 million in gold a year. The miners, often unqualified, sneak in and make their way through a warren of interconnecting tunnels to the ore.
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