Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine.

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.

Arguing that the miners had entered the mine without permission, authorities reportedly cracked down by cutting off their access to food and water.

Canada's Barrick Gold on Tuesday confirmed it had suspended operations in Mali and that the government had moved gold stock from the miner's Loulo-Gounkoto site to a bank. Reuters reported on Monday that the authorities had seized gold worth $245 million in an escalation of their long-running dispute with the company.