STILFONTEIN, South Africa, Jan 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - More than two dozen illegal miners have been rescued and at least nine bodies recovered from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, as rescue operations resumed Tuesday to reach potentially dozens more people underground.

A professional mine rescue company on Monday sent a large cage to retrieve men at the site near Stilfontein, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

Thousands of illegal miners, many of them hailing from other countries, are said to operate in abandoned mine shafts across mineral-rich South Africa.

Community leader Johannes Qankase told AFP on Tuesday that 26 people had been rescued and nine bodies recovered the previous day at the Stilfontein site.

"They are very sick. They are very dehydrated. You can see they are nearly dying," he said of the people rescued.

Most had been taken to hospital while two were believed to be in police custody, Qankase said.

Government officials were expected to be at the site Tuesday as the recovery continued.

The operation follows a weeks-long saga at the abandoned shaft, where authorities have been accused of trying to force the miners to surface by throttling food and water supplies lowered to them by the surrounding community.

It is not clear how many people are in the shaft.

The government on Monday stated that more than 1,000 people involved in illegal mining activity in the area had "surfaced and been apprehended" to date.

There were claims in mid-November that up to 4,000 people were underground but police have said the figure was probably in the hundreds.

Six bodies were brought up from the mine in early December and one in November. There have been claims recently that there were more than 100 corpses underground.

Over the past weeks the miners who have exited the shaft reported dire conditions underground, including acute hunger and dehydration. Some were arrested for being in South Africa without proper documentation.

Locally known as "zama zamas" -- "those who try" in the Zulu language -- illegal miners frustrate mining companies and are accused of criminality by residents.