Detained after being accused of controlling the illegal operations at an abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein in South Africa ...

Community members are searched by South African police before entering the mine shaft to negotiate with unlicensed miners underground in Stilfontein, in South Africa's North West province, Nov. 13 ...

Surviving on a diet of toothpaste and toilet paper, South Africa's notorious "zama-zama" illegal miners continue a weeks-long standoff with police in the darkness of a disused gold mine.

STILFONTEIN, South Africa —They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, skin and hair caked in dirt, skeletal. Some struggle to walk and collapse. They blink like moles in the harsh South African ...

THE Minerals Council SA has called on the South African government to approve a dedicated illegal mining strategy as precious ...

Stilfontein gold mine: Why did 87 people die in South Africa? - The tragedy at the abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein began to unfold in August ...

The blockade of the Stilfontein mine is part of an escalating clampdown by the government and police on the activity of illegal miners in the country. “We’ve got about 6,000 abandoned mines in ...

In August, South African police made a stand against illegal mining in Stilfontein, the latest front line in a nationwide operation called Vala Umgodi, or “close the hole.” ...

Botman, 48, who serves in the Stilfontein Greater Socioeconomic Empowerment Foundation, said volunteers fed a rope more than a mile deep into the shaft as around 50 people helped to hold it on the ...

The Stilfontein mine was being worked by thousands of desperately impoverished people when security forces moved in last summer, as part of the ANC’s Vala Umgodi (Plug the Hole) operation aimed ...

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) — Months after South African authorities initially cut off supplies to miners working illegally in an abandoned gold mine, rescuers brought dozens of bodies and ...