8 die, 25 lost in mining mishaps in 3 provinces
Ji Mi
1/1/2006 9:37
Ji Mi / Shanghai Daily news
Eight men were killed and 25 others missing in three separate mine mishaps
across the country.
The eight deaths were confirmed yesterday at a
flooded coal mine in Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province.
Investigators said
workers drilled through to a hollowed-out area, leading to the accident.
Rescue work was continuing last night for another nine workers trapped
in the mine, owned by the Baoyuan Mining Co Ltd.
The rescue work has
mobilized more than 200 rescuers since the mine's three mine shafts flooded last
Wednesday. Each shaft is about 200 meters long.
At the time, 22 workers
were underground. Five escaped the mishap.
By yesterday morning, the
remains of eight miners were recovered. Rescuers had pumped more than 20,000
cubic meters of water out of the shafts, local sources said.
Zuoyun
turns out an annual 15 million tons of coal, one-third in Dianwan Town, they
said.
The northern province is one of China's major coal producers.
In central China's Henan Province, the work safety authority in Anyang
said yesterday a land cave-in at an iron mine left 11 workers missing.
The accident occurred last Monday, according to officials of the city's
Administration for Work Safety.
The cave-in created a crater 100 meters
by 50 meters. The average depth of the hole is 60 meters.
The subsidence
plunged a street, eight shanty houses and some pig pens about 30 meters
underground.
The victims and livestock were buried under rocks.
Of the 11 missing, eight were confirmed buried in the debris.
The administration blamed the cave-in on a pit deserted since 1992.
Experts called it a geological disaster.
In another development, a gold
mine flooded in eastern China's Shandong Province, leaving five people missing,
the Beijing-based China Youth Daily reported yesterday. Five workers were
rescued.
A mine shaft flooded Thursday morning in the Hexi Gold Mine in
Penglai.
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