Delay to rescue trapped SA miners

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Five South African workers trapped in a collapsed mine may have to wait 18 hours to get help, their employer says.

AngloGold Ashanti say the miners are trapped 2,700 metres underground after an accident on Tuesday.

At some 3.5km deep, Tautona gold mine is said to be the world's deepest mining operation. Two others who were with the miners have been rescued.

"The longer it takes the more our hope of finding them alive fades," said company spokesperson Steve Lenahan.

"We had a setback on Tuesday evening when a rock panel fell, causing rescuers to start digging from scratch," Mr Lenahan said.

The Tautona mine accident has drawn criticism from the country's Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica who said the number of workers killed in the country's mines was "totally unacceptable".

Three miners died and four others were injured in a rockfall in the same mine last January.

Five miners went missing in a rockfall at AngloGold Ashanti's Tautona mine near Carletonville, west of Johannesburg

The rockfall followed two seismic events of magnitude 1.9 and 2.3.