Johannesburg — More than 4,000 miners locked in a standoff with South African authorities over illegal mining were believed to be sick and increasingly weak inside an abandoned mine shaft Thursday.

Police arrest 21 in a crackdown on illegal chrome mining in Bapong, North West. Authorities target rampant 'zama zama' operations draining the economy.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A suspected illegal gold mining ringleader known as “Tiger” escaped from custody with help from police officers after resurfacing last week from a disused mine in South Africa ...

KHUMA, South Africa — For months, the miners and their families pleaded for help. By the time it came, the mine had become a ...

Tensions rose in Bapong after police arrested at least three suspected illegal miners with large quantities of chrome in a community burdened by illicit mining.

Rescue workers look on as a cage is lifted from an abandoned gold shaft in Stilfontein, South Africa, on Thursday. They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, skin and hair caked in dirt, skeletal.

In South Africa a months long standoff between police and illegal miners in an abandoned gold mine comes to end, with close to 80 found dead in... STILFONTEIN, South Africa —They look like the walking ...

STILFONTEIN, South Africa —They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, skin and hair caked in dirt, skeletal. Some struggle to walk and collapse. They blink like moles in the harsh South African ...