More than 1,500 trapped gold miners were rescued during a dramatic all-night operation in this country's mining heartland, and hundreds more exhausted workers were expected to be brought back to the surface Thursday.About 3,200 miners were trapped Wednesday when an air pipe snapped and tumbled down a shaft, apparently causing extensive damage to steel work and an elevator, company officials said.
Most were stranded a mile underground and had to be brought to the surface in a second, smaller cage in another shaft. About 340 were even further down the shaft, which has a total depth of nearly two miles.
By 9 a.m. Thursday (3 a.m. ET), more than 1,500 were rescued, according to a company official.
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