60 bodies retrieved from closed South African gold mine after siege

In a statement, police said 51 bodies had been retrieved by Tuesday night, following nine the previous day.

The 106 survivors pulled from the mine on Tuesday were arrested for illegal mining, swelling the figure of 26 a day earlier, they added.

For decades, South Africa’s precious metals industry has battled illegal mining, which costs the government and industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties, a mining industry body estimates.

Typically, it is centered on mines abandoned by companies as they are no longer commercially viable on a large scale. Unlicensed miners, known locally for taking a chance, go in to extract whatever may be left.

The South African government has said the siege of the Stilfontein mine was necessary to fight illegal mining, which Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe called “a war on the economy”.

But residents and rights groups have criticized the crackdown, part of an operation called “Close the Hole.”