Eleven workers trapped in China’s gold mine for two weeks were safely brought to the surface on Sunday, a landmark achievement for the industry, which has long been devastated by disasters and high death toll.
State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being chased one by one in baskets on Sunday afternoon, their eyes blindfolded to protect them even in the darkness of several days.
Some brought their hands with gratitude and many looked too weak to stand. Between the chilly temperatures they were quickly covered in coats and packed into ambulances.
Hundreds of rescue workers and officers were brought to the attention and applauded as workers were being brought from a mine in Kixia under Yantai in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.
CNSphoto by Reuters
On January 10, while work was underway on the mine, a large-scale explosion in the roof killed a worker.
The fate of the other 10 people who were underground at the time was not known. Authorities have detained mine operators for being late in reporting the accident.
The cause of the accident is under investigation but the explosion was so large that 70 tons of debris was released which blocked the shaft, disabled the lift and trapped the workers underground.
Rescuers drilled parallel shafts to send food and nutrients and eventually brought survivors, 10 of whom were in the lower room and on a slightly closer surface to a separate surface.
The official China Daily newspaper said on its website that seven workers managed to get to the ambulance on their own.
Such long and costly rescue efforts are relatively new to China’s mining industry, with an average of 1,000 deaths each year. Although increased surveillance has improved safety, demand for coal and precious metals has driven in a corner-cutting direction. A new crackdown was ordered last year after 39 miners were killed in two accidents in mountainous southwest Chongqing.
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