JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 4 — A day after an accident stranded 3,200 gold miners more than a mile underground, South African officials said Thursday that they had suspended operations at the huge Elandsrand mine for up to six weeks to determine the cause.
The mine’s owner, Harmony Gold, had lifted all of the miners to safety by about 9 p.m. Thursday, The Associated Press reported, using an undamaged auxiliary elevator in a ventilation shaft.
One miner fell while awaiting rescue and was carried out on a stretcher, but no one else was injured, said Amelia Soares, a Harmony spokeswoman.
The thousands of miners, including hundreds of women, were trapped about 10 a.m. on Wednesday when a 50-foot section of compressed-air pipe and its concrete base broke loose and fell down the main shaft of the mine. The pipe severely damaged the shaft’s steel frame and cut power cables to the main working area.
Harmony did not announce the accident until Wednesday evening, about 10 hours after it occurred, said Lizelle du Toit, a second spokeswoman. The company waited because it initially believed that the workers would be brought out quickly, she said.
The Elandsrand mine, about 40 miles southwest of Johannesburg, is like many old mines on South Africa’s Witwatersrand, the biggest and most heavily mined gold deposit on earth.
Gold production had dwindled sharply when Harmony bought it in 2001 and began digging a new mine beneath the old one. Harmony has said that it is investing about $90 million in improvements to tap the nearly seven million ounces of gold that are known to exist.
South Africa’s Minerals and Energy Department closed the mine Thursday after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa charged that the accident was the result of poor safety standards and Harmony’s practice of operating the mine around the clock.
“We suspect negligence,” Senzeni Zokwana, the union president, said.
Harmony officials rejected both charges, and said the mine shaft passed a required weekly safety inspection on Saturday. But the company’s chairman, Patrice Motsepe, said the accident underscored the need for more stringent safety efforts.
“Our safety records, both as a company and as a country, leave much to be desired,” Mr. Motsepe said.
The government has set a goal of reducing mine deaths by 20 percent annually. But roughly 200 of South Africa’s 400,000 mine workers died in 2005 and in 2006, and the pace this year has been about the same.
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