Late last year, a specialized camera was lowered into an almost 1.6-mile-deep mineshaft in South Africa where hundreds of miners were reported to be trapped and starving.

The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Arguing that the miners had entered the mine without permission, authorities reportedly cracked down by cutting off their access to food and water.

Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine

The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.

A suspected illegal gold mining ringleader escaped from custody with help from police officers about a week after resurfacing from a disused mine in South Africa where 246 survivors were rescued and 78 bodies were retrieved last week,

A suspected leader of an illegal gold mining operation in South Africa, James Neo Tshoaeli, has reportedly escaped custody with alleged assistance from police officers. Tshoaeli, who goes by the nickname "Tiger,