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ZIMBABWE: Rescuers pull out 6 people, 22 corpses, after mine collapse

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ZIMBABWE: Rescuers pull out 6 people, 22 corpses, after mine collapse

Rescue operatives in Zimbabwe are doing all they can to find more bodies after no less than 22 illegal miners were killed when a mine in the Battlefields, 175 km (109 miles) west of the capital, Harare, collapsed due to flooding.

Reports say Zimbabwean rescuers pulled the bodies of the victims out of shafts that were flooded earlier in the week after the accident involving about 70 miners.

Henrietta Rushwaya, the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, which represents small-scale miners, said the bodies of the illegal miners had been identified.

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“We hope we will be able to retrieve all of the people in time,” Rushwaya said.
Tapererwa Paswavaviri, the government deputy chief mining engineer told reporters at the scene that eight miners had been rescued.

“So far we have managed to bring out eight miners alive, and we are yet to assess and find any more people down there who are still alive.”

According to reports, Battlefields and surrounding areas are rich in gold deposits and popular with artisanal miners who construct makeshift shafts and tunnels which can easily collapse in the rainy season when the ground is soft.

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