AP 

Carletonville, Oct 5: The last of 3,200 gold miners trapped for more than 24 hours in a deep shaft were brought safely to the surface on Thursday night, ending one of South Africa's biggest rescue operations.

The final workers emerged just after 9 pm, singing and dancing, according to the Harmony Gold Mining Co No casualties were reported.

A pressurised air pipe snapped at the mine near Johannesburg and tumbled down a shaft on Wednesday, causing extensive damage to an elevator and stranding the miners.

The rescue operation had dragged on longer than expected. Some of those stranded more than a mile underground had gone down on Tuesday for the night shift.

The joyful reunions were mixed with anger, fear and renewed concern about safety standards in a country that is the world's largest gold producer.

The miners were brought to the surface in a smaller cage in another shaft that can hold about 75 miners at a time. Most of the miners who emerged into the blinding sunlight looked dazed and exhausted.

"We nearly died down there," one man yelled as he walked past reporters. "I'd rather leave (the job) than die in the mine."

Sethiri Thibile, who was in the first batch of miners to be rescued about 19 hours after the accident, said there had been no food or water in the mine.