At least 14 suspected illegal miners were killed and ‌eight injured when a mine dump collapsed in South Africa’s (SA) North West province on Monday night, police said.

Search and rescue operations were under way for an unknown number of people ⁠who may still be trapped at the site near Rustenburg, Provincial Police Commissioner Arthur Peter Adams said.

The collapse occurred as the miners were digging for platinum group metals at a disused dump on a private company’s site, Adams said.

The injured miners are from the Southern African country of ‌Lesotho, ⁠while the nationality of those killed has yet to be confirmed.

Illegal mining has plagued SA for decades, ranging from small-scale theft to operations run by ⁠organised criminal networks.

Undocumented miners often enter abandoned commercial mines to extract remaining deposits, sometimes under the control of ⁠violent gangs.

Illegal mining costs the government and mining industry hundreds of millions of dollars each ⁠year in lost sales, taxes and royalties.

–Reuters–