Signs of life from flooded mine

THERE WERE signs of life from the flooded Chinese coal mine yesterday where 153 workers have been trapped since Sunday afternoon. Rescuers heard knocking on pipes and shouts from the shaft.

Although more than 100 miners managed to escape after the Wangjialing mine in the northern province of Shanxi was flooded, the others have been trapped without signs of life since then.

It is the latest disaster to strike the Chinese mining industry, the world’s deadliest, although the government has made significant progress in making it safer by shutting illegal mines and improving safety standards.

Pan Zengwu, deputy chief of the Shanxi provincial coal geological bureau, said the rescuers heard knocking on a drill pipe and they knocked to respond.

The rescue team sent 300 bags of glucose down the 250-metre deep pit. Some 3,000 rescuers were working to find the missing miners and had been drilling holes to pump water out, said Mr Pan.

Rescuers said they had discovered an iron wire tied to the end of a drill pipe, apparently tied on by the trapped miners, who were working on nine platforms when the flooding started. Four of these were not submerged, suggesting there may be survivors.

The mine covers an area of about 180 square kilometres below two counties in the Yuncheng city area of Shanxi. It is believed to have more than 2.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves. Coal accounts for 69 per cent of the primary energy in China – 42 per cent higher than the world’s average.

The mine was still being developed when the disaster happened. It is expected to produce six million tonnes of coal a year once it is fully operational. If the trapped miners are not released, it will be China’s worst mining disaster since August 2007, when 181 workers died at two flooded coal mines.

In a separate incident, a gas explosion at a coal mine in Henan province on Wednesday claimed 19 lives, and about 24 people are believed to be trapped below ground.