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The mine’s resident director, Mr Peter Chimboza, said the accident occurred on Monday at about 5.40pm.
He said there were no injuries following the accident.
When the Chronicle news crew arrived at the mine at about 12 noon yesterday, rescue teams could be seen running around while ambulances were taking some of the workers, who had just been rescued, to the mine clinic.
When the news crew arrived at the mine, relatives of some of the workers could be seen milling outside the mine premises waiting for their loved ones.
A middle-aged woman at one point had to be restrained by security personnel when she tried to force herself into the mine premises after she disagreed with the security on the whereabouts of her “missing” relative.
However, when the workers had been evacuated, the relatives could not immediately get a chance to talk to their loved ones as they were quickly taken to the clinic in the mine ambulance.
From the clinic they were taken to their homes.
Mr Chimboza said the last batch of the 178 trapped employees was evacuated at about 2.10pm with all of them going for medical check-ups at the mine clinic.
“All the 178 employees have been rescued safely and there were no incidents during the rescue operation.
“All the employees who were trapped underground owing to low visibility which had been caused by the fire were checked by our doctor and have been discharged,” he said.
Mr Chimboza said they had to call back-up rescue teams from Unki Mines and Zimasco to assist in the evacuation.
“We have a mine rescue team association so when we had the emergency with many employees underground, we had to call Unki Mines and Zimasco rescue teams in Shurugwi to come and assist us in evacuating the trapped workers,” he said.
Mr Chimboza said the mine has temporarily closed operations at the affected section while they were assessing the damage.
“At the moment we cannot ascertain the amount of damage caused because we are still investigating the cause of the fire as well as the damage caused,” he said.
One of the workers told Chronicle after being discharged from the mine clinic that he had a difficult experience underground.
“I am feeling very well but I had a difficult time because where we were trapped, there were no ablution facilities,” he said.
“We were being chocked by the smoke but we were communicating with each other underground. But I do not remember anyone having complications,” he said.
However, a prominent medical doctor said the conveyor belt smoke could result in long-term effects to the workers.
“There might be long-term effects to the employees because the smoke which they were inhaling could have mixed with some gases found underground,” he said.
Online Reporter