Lily Mine collapse: Drilling of emergency escape complete
Drilling of the emergency escape at Lily Mine outside Barberton in Mpumalanga has been completed.
Mine spokesperson Coetzee Zietsman told Jacaranda FM News that a small team of experts have been sent underground since yesterday to assess the safety situation - after which a report will be drawn up to indicate the best way forward.
Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyerende have been trapped underground for almost a month following a collapse at the mine.
Rescue efforts commenced on the day of the collapse, but operations had to be halted after about two weeks when more rock falls occurred, making it too dangerous for search and rescue workers to continue.
Zietsman says it is a very difficult and complex situation because so much earth has fallen into the hole creating instability.
"So we are scared that if we just start digging we might create a bigger problem than the one we have at this point."
READ: Lily Mine drilling machine breaks down
He says there are no workers going down into the mine at this stage because "obviously we don't want to risk the safety of anybody else, and only when we are a 100% sure that it is safe to send somebody down into the mine will we do that."
Families of the three workers are still camped-out on the mine property and they are being updated by the mine, majority union Amcu and the department of mineral resources.
Zietsman says they all understand the gravity and the reality of the situation, but until they can send rescue workers down into that mine and get an absolute understanding of what's going on, it is difficult to say anything.
"So this for now remains a search and rescue operation."
READ: 'Safety of Lily Mine rescue workers comes first'
Edited by: Marius van der Walt
