Over 400 rescued from gold mine fire in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Hundreds of workers were rescued from a fire that ignited inside a gold mine near South Africa's capital on Sunday.

The fire started at 9:40 a.m. "during maintenance work on a bulk air cooler" in a mine owned by Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. in Kusasalethu, near Johannesburg.

Before noon the company confirmed on Twitter that all 486 employees at the mine were pulled to safety uninjured.

"We are extremely grateful that all of our colleagues have been brought to surface, without injury," Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs said in a statement. "This is to the credit of our systems, employees, the unions, and mine management who have worked tirelessly over the past 12 hours. I also want to extend our thanks to mine rescue services for their efforts."

The fire began on level 75, nearly 2,300 meters underground. Investigations into the exact cause of the blaze will be held jointly between Harmony Gold's mine management and South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources, according to a company statement.

"Employees are the most valuable asset we have at Harmony – without them we would not be able to continue operating," the company said on Twitter.

Considered some of the deepest and most dangerous in the world, South Africa's mines have harbored tragedy in the past. In Feb. 2014 a fire and rock fall killed eight miners at Harmony Gold's Doornkop mine near Johannesburg, and in July 2009 a rock fall at a platinum mine in the country killed nine workers.