HUNDREDS of miners who spent three days underground as part of a union dispute left a gold mine in South Africa today, the union at the centre of the standoff said.

More than 100 miners who were held against their will by members of the dissident Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at a mine near Johannesburg escaped earlier, a mine official said.

More than 550 mine workers had been in the mine since they went underground on Sunday night.

An unknown number of them prevented members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from leaving as AMCU members demanded formal recognition of their unregistered union, the official said.

The company that runs the mine said it had rough estimates indicating that around 110-120 of the miners were probably members of the unregistered union and had kept their co-workers from departing.

The AMCU union denied that anyone was held against their will, despite police and mine officials speaking of a “hostage” situation.

The trouble at Modder East began early on Monday after 562 miners and other workers remained underground at the end of their night shift.

Mine officials said that about 15 had been injured in scuffles, including a man that authorities believe sustained a serious head injury. 

A paramedic and a security officer were also held hostage when they went to the aid of the injured man.

Early today, Ziyaad Hassam, head of the legal department at Gold One International, which owns the mine, said that 109 miners had “banded together and overpowered those controlling them and blocking the exits.”

AMCU regional secretary Tladi Mokwena said, without offering evidence, that workers “no longer want to belong to NUM. They want to be represented by AMCU.”

The rivalry between the NUM and AMCU unions was partly responsible for the Marikana masssacre, in which 34 striking miners were shot dead by police in 2012.