The miners, employed by contractors Barminco and Hahn Electrical Contracting, performed the routine in an underground pit at Gold Fields’ Agnew operation in Western Australia.

The West Australian reported that Barminco banned the workers for life. However, the two companies had not yet issued formal statements and were not available for comment at the time of publication.

One of the sacked miners said they had not breached safety regulations and nobody was endangered in the stunt at the gold mine.

The men wore helmets, cap lamps, glasses and rescue devices containing oxygen, but removed their shirts – reportedly to prevent Barminco’s name being in the YouTube video.

Fourteen of the miners were employees of Barminco, while one worked for Hahn.

The miners were fired within a week of posting the video and were reported to have been “devastated at losing their jobs over 30 seconds of madness”

“It was 2.30 in the morning and we thought we just had to do something to get us going again,” one of the sacked miners told the West Australian .

“Sometimes you lose a bit of momentum at that time of the morning.”