Police arrest hundreds of illegal miners

JOHANNESBURG (AP):

South African police said they arrested 358 illegal miners Tuesday after a shoot-out at an abandoned mine shaft owned by a grandson of Nelson Mandela and a nephew of President Jacob Zuma.

Captain Johannes Ramphora said illegal miners shot at security guards who confronted them at a mine east of Johannesburg. Security guards shot back, wounding one miner.

Police started arresting hundreds of miners Monday evening in the shaft, where authorities said explosives were also found.

"We arrest these illegal miners, but you find after a week there are other new people there," Ramphora said.

"It's a very difficult situation for police, but we are trying."

Ramphora said it was the third major illegal mining bust in the last two years. In August, South African newspapers reported that security guards shot and killed four illegal miners at the same shaft.

Aurora Empowerment Systems, which owns the mine, is in a pay dispute with the mine workers they inherited when they bought several mines from a bankrupt company.