The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Rescuers recovered 51 additional bodies from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa on Tuesday, raising the death toll to 60 after nine bodies were retrieved on Monday, the first day of a massive rescue operation.

An operation to rescue illegal gold miners stranded in deep underground shafts in South Africa’s North West province got under way on Monday, ending a months-long stand-off over their fate. Civil rights groups say at least 100 people have died from starvation since October when the authorities sealed off shafts at the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein about 156km southwest of Johannesburg,