JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - About 200 miners were missing on Sunday after an underground fire at a mine belonging to South Africa's Harmony Gold, the company said.
The bullion producer said in statement that 287 of the 486 workers were in the underground refuge bays and that mine rescue teams were trying to locate the other workers.
The fire, which started this at about 0800 GMT, was still in the process of being contained, Harmony said.
The blaze occurred about 2.3 km (1.43 miles) underground. Six more mine rescue teams had been called to assist with the rescue missions.
Kusasalethu, a deep level operation west of Johannesburg, is Harmony's single largest gold producer.
All operations other than essential services were suspended, the company added.
South Africa's gold mines are the deepest in the world and were ranked as some of the most dangerous during the apartheid era.
Mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said in November that 2014 recorded the lowest number of fatalities in the industry's history, with 84 deaths recorded. However, deaths in the gold mining industry rose in 2014 to 44 from 37 in the previous year.
Nine workers were killed after a fire related to a seismic event at Harmony's Doornkop mine in February last year.
Last year Harmony closed Kusasalethu for two weeks to try to remove illegal miners who had been trespassing on the operation and were believed to be starting fires.
(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Alison Williams and William Hardy)
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