Rescuers on Monday hoisted seven illegal miners and at least four bodies from an abandoned South African gold mine amid claims that hundreds were still underground and many had died.

A professional mine rescue company sent a large cage to retrieve men at the site near Stilfontein, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

"We can confirm to you that the machine is working. It has brought up seven people," civic representative Mzukisi Jam told reporters at the site.

At least four bodies were also retrieved, community leader Johannes Qankase told AFP. Video filmed by AFP at the site showed what appeared to be several body bags being removed from the cage.

The operation on Monday follows a weeks-long saga at the abandoned shaft where authorities have been accused of trying to force the miners to surface by throttling food and water supplies lowered to them by the surrounding community.

It is not clear how many people are in the shaft. There were claims in mid-November that up to 4,000 people were underground but police have said the figure was probably in the hundreds.

Jam, from the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO), said that with the operation underway, the organisers should get a clear idea of how many people were still underground.

The company sending down the machine, which is called a Rescue Winder, had been given 10 days to complete the operation, he said.

Six bodies were brought up from the mine in early December and one in November. There have been claims recently that there were more than 100 corpses underground.

Two miners' rights groups released a video Monday they said was filmed at the shaft showing what appears to be several corpses wrapped in plastic.

Rights groups have taken the government to court to compel it to extract the miners and provide humanitarian assistance.

Over the past weeks a few dozen miners have exited the shaft and reported dire conditions underground, including acute hunger and dehydration. Some were arrested for being in South Africa without proper documentation.

Thousands of illegal miners, many of them hailing from other countries, are said to operate in abandoned mine shafts in mineral-rich South Africa.

Locally known as "zama zamas" -- "those who try" in the Zulu language -- the miners frustrate mining companies and are accused of criminality by residents.