An earthquake measuring around 5.0 on the Richter scale hit a gold mining area of South Africa on Wednesday, injuring dozens of people including miners and jolting buildings 160 km (100 miles) away in Johannesburg. The quake, felt in Johannesburg at 12:16 p.m. (1016 GMT), had its epicentre near the town of Stilfontein, 155 km (97 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, experts at the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria said. "There is quite serious damage ... We are aware of 38 people that were injured, but they are minor injuries, no serious injuries," Police Superintendent Louis Jacobs said from Stilfontein. Gold mining company DRDGOLD said it was evacuating all 3,200 miners from its operations in the area, a key mining region for South Africa which is the world's biggest gold and platinum producer. "We know of 13 injuries, but the seriousness is not yet known, and we are getting reports of damage underground," DRDGOLD spokesman James Duncan said. "There were about 3,200 people working underground at the eight operating shafts at the time. Obviously the priority is to get them safely to surface," Duncan said. He said the mines' emergency services were being deployed, but it was not known yet how many people had been successfully evacuated. --More 1804 Local Time 1504 GMT
