The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.

Months after South Africa’s government began an operation to flush out hundreds of people from an illegal gold mine near Johannesburg, police pulled out 60 bodies as part of a search-and-rescue effort,

Interpol says a major operation targeting illegal gold mining in West Africa has resulted in 200 arrests and the seizure of harmful chemicals, explosives and drugs