Elandsrand (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

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eland Eland may refer to: Animals *''Taurotragus'', a genus of antelope ** Common eland of East and Southern Africa ** Giant eland of Central and Western Africa Places * Eland, Wisconsin, United States * An old spelling of Elland, West Yorkshire * Ela ...

ridge") is a small mining town approximately outside

Carletonville Carletonville is a town in Gauteng and the seat of the Merafong City Local Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, just north of the richest gold-mining area in the world. At 3,749 m, Western Deep Levels hold ...

next to

Blyvooruitzicht Blyvooruitzicht () is a gold mine and gold-mining village in Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated about 5 km south of the centre of Carletonville and 80 km westwards from Johannesburg. History of the village The name of the village is o ...

History

Trapped miners event of October 2007

On 3 October 2007, 3,200 mine workers were trapped in the gold mine after an accident blocked a deep (2.2 km) shaft near the bottom. Rescuers used an adjacent shaft to rescue the miners, a spokeswoman for the mine's owner, Harmony Gold Mining, said.BBC NEWS , World , Africa , All workers rescued from SA mine
/ref> Elandsrand mine is from Carltonville near

Western Deep Levels The TauTona Mine or Western Deep No.3 Shaft, was a gold mine in South Africa. At approximately deep, it was home to the world's second deepest mining operation, rivalled only by the Mponeng Gold Mine, but was closed in 2018. The mine was one ...

to the East and Deelkraal to the West. It has twin shafts very close to each other, one being a production shaft, the other a service shaft for men and equipment. The incident trapping the miners occurred in the service shaft when a 15-meter section of compressed air pipe burst and fell to the shaft bottom, in the process damaging steel shaft guides, and electrical lines which cut off power to the hoist on the service cage. Because the service shaft became inoperable, miners were brought up using the production shaft, after changing out the skips for a cage.News
The cages in the service shaft are of a 3 deck configuration with a capacity of about 150 personnel, and are capable of operating at speeds of per hour. The service cage would not be able to fit into the hoisting compartments in the production shaft due to different shaft sizes, and different compartment configurations. Due to this fact a smaller cage with a slower hoisting speed was used in the skip compartments. As a result, evacuation of the trapped miners took longer than had the miners been able to use the service shaft as an egress. Eventually all the miners were rescued unharmed from the mine.

References

Populated places in the Merafong City Local Municipality {{Gauteng-geo-stub

History

Trapped miners event of October 2007

See also

References