Rescuers last night were trying to reach 69 miners trapped by flooding in a township-run colliery in northeast China's Jilin Province, the weekend's second serious mine mishap.
The miners were working in the Tengda Coal Mine when the flooding occurred around 7am and have remained out of contact ever since.
The cause of the flooding was not immediately known.
On Saturday night in north China's Henan Province, eight miners died in a fire in Yuzhou City. Four others remained missing last night.
The deaths occurred after a machine caught fire in the Fushun Coal Mine in Changzhuang Township, where 79 miners were working underground. Sixty-seven miners were able to escape.
The bodies of the eight dead miners have been recovered.
The colliery is properly licensed and owned by the township. But workers should not have been sent underground because the mine was supposed to be closed for maintenance, according to police.
Managers in charge of work safety have been detained by police, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Meanwhile, five months after a gas explosion that killed 166 miners, rescuers have found another 61 bodies in the Chenjiashan coal pits in Tongchuan in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Rescuers are still searching for the remaining 70 bodies, and an investigation into the cause of the accident is continuing, officials with the Shaanxi Provincial Coal Mining Group said on Saturday.
Authorities said the group has approved the resignation of An Jishuan, former director of Tongchuan Mining Administration. An, 55, requested resignation in March. He was put in charge of the administration in May 2001.
The group has appointed former Vice President Zhu Zhouqi as the new mining administrator.
 The search for the missing bodies was delayed by heavy levels of toxic gas, underground fires and additional blasts.
China's mining industry has bee plagued by explosions, floods and other underground disasters that killed 1,113 people in the first three months of the year.
The government has pledged some 3 billion yuan (US$362.5 million) to improve safety standards.
(Xinhua)