Two suspected illegal miners were shot‚ one of whom died‚ during an exchange of fire with police at an abandoned shaft at the Lily Mine over the weekend.
Two other suspected illegal miners were arrested.
This came after a man armed with a rifle was detained at the mine by security guards on Saturday.
“The police responded and before they could arrive they got a report that a group of armed men came and abducted the man and took off with him. When the police followed the report‚ the suspects opened fire on them. Then the two parties exchanged shots.
“Two suspects were shot‚ one of whom died and the other was hospitalised‚ while another pair was arrested‚” said Brigadier Leonard Hlathi‚ provincial police spokesperson.
Hlathi said the suspects would appear at the Barberton Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of attempted murder as well as for possession of illegal firearms‚ ammunition and marijuana.
Hlathi said that the initial tip-off from security guards had referred to certain types of firearms.
“The firearms we recovered were different from initial descriptions‚ meaning that there might be more to this. The problem is bigger than we think because they use these guns to commit other crimes like cash-in-transit and other robberies.”
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
