Gloria mine rescue operations suspended until Friday
The rescue and recovery operations at the Gloria coal mine in Mpumalanga have been temporarily halted.
On Tuesday, all operations were suspended due to an electrical fault with one of the generators supplying power to the underground ventilators.
More than 10 people have been declared dead after an underground gas explosion at one of the shafts at the abandoned mine three weeks ago.
The explosion occurred when alleged cable thieves attempted to strip the shaft of cables.
Five bodies were brought to the surface and seven more have since been located inside the mine.
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On Sunday night, rescue personnel had to be evacuated from the mine shaft due to the high level of toxic gases.
The mine's business rescue practitioner, Mike Elliot, says Eskom and another supplier are helping the rescue operators with the instalment of a new transformer to power the fan.
"We have re-cabled everything that we can re-cable, as soon as the transformer is in we will connect everything up, check all of the electronics and start one of the main fans to start sucking the explosive gases out of the mine and freshening up the underground."
Elliot says people are trapped some two kilometers underground.
"Vertically it's only 130 meters, but horizontally we go down at about 1,4 kilometres. Then we work our way towards where the guys are and that is about another 1,4 to 1,8 kilometres so you are looking at a total distance of about 3 kilometres."