Ayanda Ndabeni and his associates were more than a mile underground, in the darkness of decrepit abandoned mine tunnels, when the police cut off their lifeline to the surface.

Determined to flush out hundreds of illegal miners trespassing in the disused gold mine, officers began stopping food and water going into the shafts and waited to starve the prospectors out.

At a stroke, Mr Ndabeni and his colleagues were cut off from supplies, leaving them with dwindling food, water and batteries.

However, the men had not gone into the mine lightly and did not want to leave. 

Heading back to the daylight after weeks or months of work could mean arrest and the loss of illicit gold dug out at great risk, they feared.

Fighting off hunger with salt

“A survival plan was hatched,” the 36-year-old told the Telegraph. “We survived on a mixture of water, sugar and salt. My other colleagues mixed vinegar and toothpaste to beat the hunger,” he said.

For months, South Africa’s police have been in a stand-off with hundreds of illegal miners deep in the abandoned old Buffelsfontein gold mine, near Stilfontein, 90 miles south-west of Johannesburg.

Police have thrown a wide cordon around the warren of old workings. They say it is too dangerous to descend to arrest the miners, some of whom are alleged to be armed.