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.

The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.

South African rescue workers believe no one is underground anymore in the mine where dozens of workers died. So reports the head of the rescue operation after cameras descended. The death toll is now believed to be 78.