Platinum miners Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP.LN) and Impala Platinum (IMP.JO) said Tuesday a fire overnight at the jointly owned Mimosa operation in Zimbabwe has been contained.

The majority of the 75 workers stuck in underground due to poor visibility because of the smoke are out and about eight still in there will be out soon, an Impala spokesman said.

The fire started when the conveyor belt in the main decline caught alight, but has been contained.

Impala said there are two other smaller conveyer belts that can be used while the mining team assesses the overall damage.

Impala wouldn't give a figure for how much output will be lost but said some mining is continuing.

The Mimosa mine is a 50-50 joint venture between Aquarius and Impala. The mine produced 104,900 troy ounces of platinum in 2011 and employs 1,796 people, including contractors.

Aquarius shares at 1110 GMT were down 1 pence, or 1.4%, at 84 pence valuing the company at GBP399 million.

-Devon Maylie, Dow Jones Newswires, +27117837848, devon.maylie@dowjones.com

(Ed Ballard in London contributed to this report.)

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