Rescuers save 1,950 South African gold miners

By James Macharia

ELANDSRAND MINE, South Africa (Reuters) - Around 1,250 miners remained trapped more than a mile underground in a South African gold mine on Thursday after an all-night rescue mission.

Up to 200 women were among those stuck in a cramped space in the Elandsrand mine where temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Stranded when the electricity cable of the mine's main lift was severed in an accident, the miners were being brought up in small lift slowly to avoid risks, mining officials said.

Jeanneth Makamu, exhausted and wearing dusty green overalls, said she had spent much of the time underground thinking about her family. Her husband, who also works at the mine, escaped the accident.

"I was worried for my two children and my husband Steven. I met him as I came in the morning shift and he was walking out (after a nightshift)," said Makamu.

As she and others emerged from 2.2 km (1.4 miles) underground they were handed food packages before heading to their hostel accommodation. At least one worker had to be treated by paramedics for dehydration.

Mine owner Harmony Gold said the rescue operation was going smoothly and those underground were being pumped clean air and water. By 1000 GMT (6:00 a.m. EDT), 1,950 mineworkers of the 3,200 originally stranded had been rescued.

"It's a very serious incident, but it's under control," Harmony chief executive officer Graham Briggs told Reuters.