RESCUERS sent a cage-like structure into one of South Africa’s deepest mines today in an attempt to bring out survivors among hundreds of illegal miners trapped underground for months in an abandoned shaft. 

More than 100 miners are believed to have died of starvation or dehydration.

A group representing the miners said that at least 18 bodies and 26 survivors have been brought out of the Buffelsfontein goldmine since Friday, but more than 500 miners are still believed to be underground, some since July of last year.

Police said that they are uncertain how many remain, but it is likely to be hundreds.

The mine near the town of Stilfontein, south-west of Johannesburg, has been the scene of a tense stand-off between police, miners and members of the local community since November, when authorities first launched an operation to try and force the miners out. 

Authorities say that the miners are able to come out and are refusing, but that has been disputed by rights groups and activists, who have fiercely criticised police tactics in cutting off the miners’ food and water supplies from the surface in an attempt to force them out. 

Rights groups say many of the miners are effectively dying of starvation and unable to climb out because the ropes and pulley system they used to enter have been removed.

Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to illegally enter them to try and find leftover deposits.

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action group, which took authorities to court in December to force them to allow food, water and medicine to be sent down to the miners, released two mobile phone videos which they said were from underground and showed dozens of dead bodies of miners wrapped in plastic.