Fourteen killed, several believed trapped in illegal chrome incident near Marikana

Fourteen illegal chrome miners were killed and several are believed to be trapped under the rubble after a rock fall near the Nkaneng informal settlement in North West, police said on Tuesday, 11 August 2026. 

Confirming Daily Maverick’s initial reporting, the SAPS said in a statement that most of the illegal miners were from Lesotho and that eight others had been admitted to hospital with injuries.

“An unknown number of illegal miners are possibly stuck under the ground. Police are on the scene and the scene is still active,” the SAPS said. 

The accident occurred Monday night at about 9pm. 

Illegal chrome mining and illicit chrome washing plants are rife in the region near Rustenburg and Marikana and hiding in plain sight, though the police have had some recent successes on this front. Last week the Hawks swooped on one operation and seized four excavators and one dump truck. 

“Twenty-three cases related to illegal mining were registered in the past two years in the Rustenburg area with 63 accused charged. These illegal activities include mining of chrome and platinum. Twenty trucks and 15 excavators have been seized in the past two years,” Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula told Daily Maverick.

Illegal and unregulated, such chrome operations follow no safety standards or guidelines, making them hazards to the exploited grunts who extract the commodity as well as the surrounding environment and communities.

Mining security sources have told Daily Maverick that initiatives to combat illegal gold mining have seen some Zamas down tools in that sector and move into the illegal chrome space. The fact that most of the illegal miners involved in this tragedy were from Lesotho support that observation. 

Police commit to arrests

On Tuesday afternoon, North West Police Commissioner Arthur Adams said in remarks shared with the media: “We are still dealing with the possibility that an unknown number of illegal miners may remain trapped underground. Our immediate priority is therefore the rescue and recovery operation.

“All relevant resources are being mobilised to deal with this situation. At the same time, an inquest investigation has been opened to establish the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.”

Adams continued: “We are not only going after the people found underground. We are going after the entire criminal value chain. Those who finance these operations, provide equipment, facilitate access, transport illegal miners and ultimately profit from illegally extracted minerals must understand that they are also targets of law enforcement.

“We will investigate. We will arrest. And we will ensure that those responsible are brought before the courts.”

Adams said SAPS was proactively targeting illegal mining hotspots.

“We are strengthening operations, increasing our presence in identified hotspots and working with our law enforcement partners to disrupt illegal mining activities and the criminal networks behind them.”

Coveted commodity

A by-product of the platinum group metals (PGMs), chrome is a coveted commodity. A key component in the production of stainless steel, it is highly resistant to corrosion. But the illegal chrome operations are having a corrosive impact on the region. 

The threats are many: collapsing property values, the fouling of prime agricultural land, the siphoning and polluting of scarce water supplies, and losses for legitimate mining operations and the Treasury as the fat profits from criminal chrome flow to transnational organised crime syndicates. 

SA is by far the world’s biggest producer of both PGMs and chrome, accounting for about 70% of global supplies.  DM

This story was updated to include comments from SAPS. (Updated: 11 August 2026)