A group of 27 miners have been rescued from a collapsed mine in Australia after one of the men raised the alarm using his mobile phone.

They were trapped several hundred metres below the surface at the Mount Clear mine owned by Lihir Gold in southern Victoria.

With breathable air in short supply, the men gathered in a chamber in the mine and made an emergency call on a mobile phone.

A rescue operation was quickly launched, and all 27 men were winched to safety through an air shaft.

No injuries were reported and the miners were later reunited with their families, Lihir Gold spokesman Joe Dowling said.

Both the company and state safety officials said they will hold separate investigations into the cause of the collapse.

Les Clayton, one of the rescued miners,said: "I just spoke with triple zero (emergency number), that's the only one you'll get down from underground in the ventilation area where I was, and just explained to them to get over to the Ballarat Gold Fields mine.

"We ran between two refuge chambers, and we spoke to each and every one of them about completely different things to keep the morale going. And they were really good."

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