.jpg "106 illegal miners retrieved alive and arrested for illegal mining")
On day two of operations, a total of 106 illegal miners were retrieved alive and arrested for illegal mining. 51 were certified dead.
A breakdown of those arrested per nationality is as follows:
Mozambicans: 67
Lesotho nationals: 26
Zimbabweans: 11
South Africans: 2
Operations will resume on Wednesday, 15 January 2025.
Since August 2024 to Sunday, 12 January 2025 the following was recorded:
- Arrests and Confiscations:
- Over 1,576 illegal miners have been arrested before the extraction operation commenced. Those arrested include the following nationalities:
- 997 of the arrested are Mozambicans, 427 are Zimbabweans, 118 are Basotho nationals from Lesotho, 21 are South Africans while one is from Malawi and another one from Congo.
- 1540 illegal miners are still in police custody.
- 121 illegal miners have already been deported which include 80 Mozambicans, 30 Basotho nationals, 10 Zimbabweans and one Malawian.
- 46 have already been found guilty of illegal mining, trespassing and contravening the immigration act. The court handed down a sentence of R12 000 or six months wholly suspended imprisonment sentence for five years on condition that they are not found guilty of similar crimes.
- Confiscated materials since the start of operations in Stilfontein (December 2023) include over 640 kg of gold-bearing material, 6.2 kg of refined gold, explosives, firearms, and cash amounting to R52.49 million seized.
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