Ten suspected illegal miners trapped underground for three days after a mining pit collapsed in the Ashanti Region have all been rescued and are receiving medical treatment, local authorities said on Friday.

The miners were trapped on Wednesday (13 May) when a pit at a mining site belonging to Northern Ashanti Mines caved in at Konongo in the Asante-Akyem Central Municipality, blocking their exit route beneath debris.

Municipal Chief Executive Rev. Ebenezer Kow Aidoo said rescue teams successfully pulled all the miners out by Friday evening.

“As at 7:45 p.m. this evening, all ten of them have been saved. We have sent them to the hospital and they are receiving medical attention,” Aidoo told television station TV3.

The rescue operation involved emergency responders, officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), security personnel and fellow miners, who worked for days to reach the trapped workers.

Aidoo said he had initially feared for the health of the miners after spending several days underground, but many appeared physically stable after being rescued.

“When they came out, they were jumping and hugging their friends and family,” he said, adding that mining experts believed they could have survived underground for up to seven days.

According to the municipal chief executive, access to water underground may have helped the miners survive during the ordeal.

Earlier on Friday, local authorities said rescue workers could hear voices from beneath the collapsed section of the mine, raising hopes that the miners were still alive.

The Asante-Akyem Central Director of NADMO, Lanbon Joseph, told journalists at the scene that unstable ground conditions and the depth of the collapse complicated rescue efforts.

“We can hear their voices underground, and the rescue team is doing everything possible to retrieve them safely,” he said before the miners were rescued.

The incident drew large crowds of residents, relatives and sympathisers to the mining site as rescue operations continued.

Authorities are expected to investigate the cause of the collapse after rescue operations are completed.

Mining accidents remain a recurring challenge in Ghana, one of Africa’s leading gold producers, where both large-scale and small-scale mining operations have faced scrutiny over safety standards and illegal mining activities.