Fire kills at least 36 at old S.Africa gold mine
* Harmony says too dangerous to search for more bodies
* Hundreds of illegal miners arrested
* Government says crime difficult to combat
(Adds government comment)
By James Macharia
JOHANNESBURG, June 1 (Reuters) - At least 36 illegal miners have been killed in an underground fire at a disused gold mine in South Africa and it is too dangerous to search for more bodies, Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HARJ.J) said on Monday.
Harmony, the world's No. 5 gold producer, said the illegal miners died at the weekend at its Eland shaft, in the central Free State province, where a similar fire at its marginal St. Helena mine killed 23 illegal miners in 2007.
Illegal mining often goes unnoticed because miners can sneak past security at one mine and exit from one owned by a different company kilometres away. Gold prices near record highs have made the risk even more worthwhile.
Harmony said illegal miners had brought the bodies of 36 others to the surface at the weekend, but that it was too dangerous to send its own employees on underground searches.
It said another 294 illegal miners had been arrested in the province in the past two weeks and would be prosecuted. That followed the arrest of 114 in March -- including 19 Harmony employees.
Harmony, the third biggest gold producer in Africa, was built on a strategy of buying old, unwanted gold shafts and mines, making it particularly exposed to plundering by illegal miners.
"It is difficult to deal with illegal miners. We don't have the capacity to inspect disused mines and in any case illegal miners are always armed," Thabo Gazi, who heads the mine safety council at the Department of Mining, said.
South Africa's Chamber of Mines said illegal mining was a problem that individual companies were dealing with, but it had no figures on the value of gold stolen. South Africa is the world's third biggest gold producer.
CATCHING THIEVES HARD
Minister of Mining Susan Shabangu expressed condolences for the deaths at the Harmony mine.
"The South African Government will not condone illicit mining, but these are human lives that have been lost," she said. "Children have been orphaned and women have been widowed."
Tom Smith, who heads Harmony's operations in the southern part of the country, said illegal miners included South Africans and illegal immigrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique, belonging to organised syndicates.
Some were former miners employed by mining firms, and targeted remnants of gold-rich ore in disused mines, which they dig out with shovels and at times use explosives, he said.
Catching thieves was difficult in the labyrinth of mines.
"These are very well organised syndicates, the people who died at Eland are at the bottom of the chain. You can call them the foot soldiers who do the dirty job," Smith said.
"You can easily walk underground for over 35 km (22 miles) in the Free State mines. The illegal miners can stay underground for as long as three months at a time," he said.
He said some closed shafts were left open to pump water to other shafts because the mines are inter-linked.
Even though Harmony provided security for closed shafts, some guards are bribed by the illegal miners, he said.
"They bribe security to get into the mines, and while in there can make arrangements to be supplied with food, for which they can pay a huge premium," Smith said.
Joanne Jones, a spokeswoman at AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J), the world's No. 3 gold producer, said it had no illegal miners at its operations because it mostly had newer mines.
"We don't have disused mines, so we don't experience this kind of issue," Jones said.
(Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Peter Blackburn)
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