One miner shows no sign of life; rescue ‘ extremely difficult’

One of the 22 trapped miners in East China’s Shandong Province showed no sign of life as of Wednesday night, other trapped miners reported to the ground. The miner had been in critical conditions for a while due to injuries on head.

The rescue work accelerated but remain “extremely difficult,” the chief on- site rescue expert told the Global Times on Wednesday, the tenth day of the goldmine rescue.

“We can’t predict when we can bring them up,” Du Bingjian, the on- site chief expert of the National Mine Emergency Rescue Geological Survey Team, told the Global Times.

Du noted the rescue team is clearing the original wind shaft, which collapsed due to the explosion, and is drilling new boreholes simultaneously, which accelerated rescue work. But clearing the shaft faces many obstacles and the team must also guarantee the miners’ living environment.

Rescue team leader Chen Yumin told local media that the explosion occurred right next to the wind shaft, causing the facilities to move out of place. The pipes and cables were all intertwined.”

The shaft is only four meters in diameter, limiting rescuers’ mobility. “Only three or four people can get down to work each time, greatly impacting the efficiency. The clean- up is very slow,” Chen said.

Rescue teams have already opened boreholes to ventilate underground, and are now digging a drainage pipe to deal with flooding in the section where the miners are trapped, Du said.

The other 10 miners who are in contact have stable physical conditions, aside from one suffering a cold and two having a history of high blood pressure, Du said. Another miner was once contacted while the other 10 are still missing.

Experts also suggested stronger mental and psychological support to the miners.