CARLETONVILLE, South Africa (CNN) -- Hundreds of workers from a South African gold mine returned to the surface Thursday morning after power to the mine was restored, following an accident that kept them underground for more than a day, the company operating the mine told CNN.
Miners express happiness early Thursday as they resurface from the Elandstrand gold mine.
"I'm happy now because we are out and we are alive," said Granny Makau, one of the miners who was trapped inside Elandstrand New Mine, north of Johannesburg. "No one died so we are happy."
A slow and deliberate rescue operation was underway but it was expected to take until Thursday afternoon before all 3,200 workers would see daylight again. More than a thousand had surfaced by mid morning.
"I thought maybe it would take three days or four days (to get out), but I'm happy now that I'm out and everybody is OK," Makau said.
Harmony Gold Mining Company President Graham Briggs, whose company oversees mining operations there, echoed those sentiments.
"It's really a nice sight to see people come out from underground," he said. "It's always difficult when you've got a situation where you've got people underground and they should be on the surface."
Video footage at the mouth of the mine showed workers in hard hats and overalls, exiting a small secondary shaft in groups of about 75. As each lift surfaced, paramedics were seen offering food, water and medical attention, if necessary. In addition, paramedics have entered the mine and are treating workers waiting to leave.
The workers were trapped in the cavernous mine -- which is built like an underground city complete with trains, trucks and cars -- after broken water pipe knocked out electricity to the mine about 6 a.m. Wednesday (midnight Tuesday ET), shutting down power to the elevators, South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Welile Nhlapo told CNN.
The miners were trapped more than 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) underground, according to Lesiba Sheshoka, a spokesman for the South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers.
They were "quite safe" and were given food and water, Nhlapo said.
"This was a situation where the people were not really in danger, they were underground," Briggs told CNN on Thursday. "They weren't in personal danger at any time ... this is a delay in getting people to surface. It's not really an accident in the sense of an underground accident, in the sense of a falling rock."
Although Sheshoka said he could not speak specifically about the conditions at the Elandstrand mine, he pointed to what he called South Africa's generally poor mine safety record.
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According to an official South African government Web site, 202 workers died in mine accidents in 2005, with another 3,961 suffering injuries.
"We're not proud of those statistics at all," Briggs said, in response to the nationwide numbers. "At Harmony, we have improved over the last three years but we need to keep working at it and keep improving it."
In the past decade mine safety across South Africa has shown improvement.
According to the government's Web site, the 2005 safety numbers were a great improvement from 1995, when 533 miners died and 7,000 were injured.
The government pledges further improvements to reduce those numbers. E-mail to a friend
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All About South Africa
Map highlighting Carletonville, Gauteng province S. Africa. 
As many as 3,200 mine workers became trapped in the in Elandsrand mine, a gold mine in South Africa about 50 miles (80 km) west of Johannesburg in Carletonville, Gauteng, after an incident on October 3. All miners have been rescued, and none of them were injured. The mine is owned by Harmony Gold Mining Corporation.

The mining company says that a lift electrical cable broke on a basket that was carrying miners, trapping thousands at least 2,200 meters (1.3 miles) below the earth's surface. Reports from ''MSNBC'' and the ''Guardian Unlimited'' say that the shaft may have collapsed when a water or air pipe burst. The rescue operation went well with no complications, with the rescue taking just under 24 hours to complete.

"They were underground when the accident happened and they were not able to surface because an electric feeder cable that is connected to the mine lift was severed," said a spokeswoman for the mining company, Amelia Soares. The snap was caused by a "fatigued" air pipe which burst and fell down the shaft damaging the "steelwork and electrical feeder cords," added Soares. "They are all in good condition."

"They are all safe. There have been no injuries or deaths," said CEO of Harmony mining, Graham Briggs who also said that the miners were previously contacted and were given "food and water."

Earlier reports had stated that Lesiba Seshoka, a spokesman with the National Union of Mineworkers, said that the miners have not been heard from for hours and that they could have been enduring temperatures as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

"This is a terrible situation. The only exit is blocked, probably by a fall of ground," said Seshoka.

Rescue workers used a mine shaft that is next to the damaged one in an attempt to reach the trapped miners, and lifted them out, 75 at a time. There was no emergency exit in the shaft which is reported to have "not been maintained for ages," added Seshoka.

"An escape route is the most important thing and they have failed miserably. They need to ensure that the shaft is maintained. This is why we have this disaster. Our main worry is for more than 3,000 people who are underground," said National Union of Mineworkers for S. Africa chairman, Deon Boqwana.

Current reports say that "negligence" was the initial cause for the pipe burst and that there has been a history of negligence from the mine. "We suspect negligence. Because of continuous operations there is no time to make adequate checks," said the President of the Miners union, Senzeni Zokwana to reporters during a news conference.

The Elsrand mine is currently under development and has been since February 2001 when Harmony bought the mine. Officials state that the mine will remain closed for a minimum of six weeks, while an investigation is performed, and the mine is deemed safe for miners to continue working in it.

The mine is located in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa, which is said to be the location of the largest area of raw gold on the planet.