2 miners gassed to death in shaft

TWO gold miners have died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning while searching for gold in a mine shaft. Lypson Musandipa, 32, from Gokwe and Vincent Ngonya from Kwekwe met their death at Mount Morgen Mine in Lalapanzi, which is owned by Berlin Chitiki.

Chitiki told The Chronicle that Ngonya was underground at around 10AM when he detected carbon monoxide and climbed up to the surface to inform him.

"I told him that we needed to get a compressor and pump out the carbon monoxide before any mining operations could continue. I then left the mine and went to Gweru knowing that the miners were on the surface and well," said Chitiki.

He said at around 2PM on the same day, he received a phone call to the effect that two miners were not responding to communication from the surface.

Chitiki said he called the police who accompanied him to the mine. "I was told that when I left the mine, Ngonya went down the shaft saying he had come across a reef with gold and couldn't be deterred by carbon monoxide. So Ngonya went down saying he was going to close the spot where he suspected that the deadly gas was emitting from," said Chitiki.

He said after some time, Musandipa followed to check on Ngonya and that was the last time he was seen alive.

Chitiki said the police had to go down and later brought out the two bodies.

The bodies were taken to Mpilo Central Hospital for post-mortem.