CARLETONVILLE, South Africa >> A specialized mine rescue camera was lowered late last year into an almost 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) deep mineshaft in South Africa, where hundreds of illegal miners were reported to be trapped, starving, dehydrated and desperate to get out.

With no architectural plans of the actual mineshaft and its levels and tunnels, the camera reached 1,280 meters (4,200 feet) underground and gave rescuers their first visuals: A large group of illegal miners was seen standing around on a level, clearly waiting for help to arrive.

Rescuers brought the camera back to the surface and then sent it back down, this time with a notepad, pen and a letter attached to initiate communication with the miners. Once it reached them, the miners immediately also attached a note telling the rescuers that about 480 of them were underground and those still alive were desperate to exit the mine.

This would mark the beginning of discussions to explore various options of how to bring the miners back up to the surface.

It would also be the first time a specially designed cage that can be lowered as deep as 10,170 feet fitted with specialized cameras and a communications system was used to rescue such a large number of people underground.

“When we got to the level we could immediately see that there are some people standing. We could not determine the number of people that are standing there but it was evident that people were standing around and they were in need of help to come up to the surface,” said Mannas Fourie, the CEO of Mine Rescue Services South Africa, the private company contracted to rescue the miners.

The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in the abandoned Buffelsfontein Gold Mine has risen to at least 87, police said last week. Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and bring them out of the mine by cutting off their food supplies.

The deceased miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released. South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off the miners. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa’s biggest trade unions.

According to Fourie, who led the operation at the mineshaft, once the cage was lowered with two volunteers from the community, they were eventually able to reach their target of retrieving at least 35 miners a day.

Fourie and his team initially estimated that the operation would last up to 16 days based on equipment that would take two people out of the shaft at a time. But this changed once a full assessment was done and it was determined the cage could be used for the rescue, allowing them to bring up to 13 people at a time.