![[File Image] Miners work deep underground at Sibanye Gold's Masimthembe shaft in Westonaria, South Africa, April 3, 2017.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SABC-News-Mine-Twitter-@SAgovnews.png)
The Benchmark Foundation has called on government to urgently start to engage stakeholders on the verification of small-scale and disused mines to control illegal activities.
This follows the arrest of 97 suspected illegal miners in Heidelberg, Gauteng on Monday.
A national multi-disciplinary team arrested the suspects, between the ages of 18 and 35 as well as an elderly farm owner, during a clamp down on illicit mining activities.
All the suspects will soon appear in the Heidelberg Magistrate’s Court on charges of illegal mining, human trafficking, flouting immigration laws, and illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.
The Foundation’s lead researcher, David van Wyk says, “They need to do an audit of the small-scale mines in South Africa. They need to actually create conditions within which small-scale mining can operate legally and they need to organise people into co-operatives or some kind of business unit. They also need to create a central buying agency to buy all the gold so that the illegal miners stop being part of the gold syndicate.”
The video below reports on the illegal mining:
![[File Image]: Workers at the office amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Porto, Portugal, July 20, 2021.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/SABC-News-Worker-Reuters-120x86.jpg)
