Toxic liquids building up in defunct gold mines beneath Johannesburg could reach environmentally dangerous levels by June 2012, officials and scientists said yesterday.
Work is to begin immediately on a chain of pumping stations and treatment plants.
Water has already started leaking from abandoned mines west of Johannesburg in the so-called Western Basin.
Water accumulating in shafts dug more than a century ago has been reacting with rocks to produce sulphuric acid, heavy metals, toxins and radiation.
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