Trapped Chinese gold miner dies as rescuers try to save 21 others
As rescuers worked to save 22 Chinese gold miners trapped nearly 2,000 feet underground, one of the men died Wednesday.
The miners have been trapped since Jan. 10 in the eastern China mine. A group of 11 managed to pass a note to search teams earlier this week requesting food and medical supplies.
One member of that group died Wednesday, China’s state-run Xinhua News reported. The unidentified man suffered severe head injuries in the explosion that separated the miners from a path to safety.
Search teams believe the workers are trapped in three separate locations, according to Agence France-Presse. They located the first group, now down to 10 members, on Sunday about 1,900 feet below the surface. Another man is reportedly by himself about 300 feet further down.
Rescuers have not yet located the other 10 miners, continuing to search the mine under the city of Qixia in Shandong Province, directly across the Yellow Sea from the Korean Peninsula.
Emergency personnel have drilled channels to deliver food and medicine to the 10 people they located, Xinhua News reported. They’ve also established communication with the group through phone lines.
The Chinese mining industry is extremely dangerous, and deaths are common compared to other countries. In 2018, 333 coal miners died in accidents, according to official national data. That was a tremendous improvement from a decade earlier, when more than 3,000 coal miners died.
The local mayor and Communist Party secretary have both been canned for failing to report the accident earlier, AFP reported. Mine managers have been detained for similar inaction, according to the Associated Press.
