The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.

The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine.

An ongoing dispute over ownership stakes in Barrick’s operation in Mali has led to the arrest of mining officials, the government’s gold seizure and the company’s shutdown of its mine.

Barrick Gold is suspending mining operations in Mali after the government seized gold stockpiles and issued an arrest warrant for Barrick's CEO. Bloomberg's William Clowes reports from Johannesburg. (

Canada’s Barrick Gold has suspended operations in Mali after the government seized gold from the company in an escalation of a dispute between the military junta and international mining groups. The Toronto and New York-listed company said in a statement that it had “regrettably initiated the temporary suspension of operations” at its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex in the west African country.