11 labourers rescued from China gold mine after 2 weeks
Rescuers pulled 11 gold miners to safety with most of them in good condition ater 14 days trapped underground ater an explosion, but 10 more were still unaccounted for, says state media
Chinese rescuers pulled 11 gold miners to safety on Sunday with most of them in good condition ater 14 days trapped underground ater an explosion, but 10 colleagues were still unaccounted for, state media reported.
Television footage showed the first miner as he was brought to the surface in the morning, a black blindfold shielding his eyes from daylight as he was lited out of a shat.
The miner was extremely weak, state broadcaster CCTV reported on its Weibo site. Rescue workers wrapped the barely responsive man in a blanket and took him to hospital by ambulance.
Over the next few hours, 10 miners from a different section of the mine, who had been geting food and medical supplies down a shat from rescue workers last week, were brought out in batches.
“We made a breakthrough this morning,” chief engineer at the rescue centre, Xiao Wenru, told the Xinhua news agency.
“Ater clearing these broken, powdery pieces, we found that there were cavities underneath... our progress accelerated.”
Officials had said on Thursday it could take another two weeks to drill a rescue shat through blockages to reach the group of 10.
One of the men brought to the surface was injured but several were shown walking, supported by rescue workers and wearing black cloth over their eyes, before being taken away by ambulance.
They were in good physical condition and had been geting normal food since Saturday, ater several days of living off nutrient solutions, the Xinhua news agency said.
China’s mines are among the world’s deadliest. It recorded 573 mine-related deaths in 2020, according to the National Mine Safety Administration.
The Jan. 10 explosion in the Hushan mine in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in coastal Shandong province, trapped 22 workers about 600 metres (2,000 feet) underground.
One miner is known to have died. Ten are unaccounted for.
More than 600 rescuers have been on the site working to reach the men. The workers’ escape is similar to the rescue of 33 miners trapped in the San Jose copper-gold mine in Chile for more than 69 days in 2010.
The Chilean miners, who were caught in a cave-in, survived on rations of food and water for 17 days until rescue crews gave them a lifeline by drilling a tiny hole into the chamber where they had taken refuge.
Weeks later, a larger hole was drilled and the miners were pulled to the surface as a captivated global audience watched.
The official China Daily said on its website that seven of the workers were able to walk to ambulances on their own.
State broadcaster CCTV showed numerous ambulances parked alongside engineering vehicles at the mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under Yantai in Shandong province.
Increased supervision has improved safety in China’s mining industry, which used to average 5,000 deaths per year.
However, demand for coal and precious metals continues to prompt corner-cuting, and two accidents in Chongqing last year killed 39 miners.
Meanwhile, a Chinese city has brought 2,600 temporary treatment rooms online as the country’s north batles new clusters of coronavirus.
The single-occupancy rooms in the city of Nangong in Hebei province just outside Beijing are each equipped with their own heaters, toilets, showers and other amenities, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Special atention has been paid to Hebei because of its proximity to the capital and the province has locked down large areas to prevent further spread of the virus.
The provincial capital Shijiazhung and the city of Xingtai, which encompasses Nangong, have been largely sealed off from the rest of the country.
Community isolation and large-scale testing have also been enforced.
China on Saturday marked the anniversary of the start of a 76-day lockdown in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019.