Johannesburg — More than 4,000 miners locked in a standoff with South African authorities over illegal mining were believed to be sick and increasingly weak inside an abandoned mine shaft Thursday.

The hole was originally the vent for shaft 11 at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine, an operation so vast that it produced 1% of ...

More than 240 survivors have been brought to the surface, many severely emaciated after being trapped since November.

Analysis - Last year's tragic events at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa show the danger of poor information in policing operations.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized economy, has produced more gold than any other country. The gold rush of the late 1800s formed the bedrock for massive cities like Johannesburg, ...