(StraightNews.org) – More than a dozen men are trapped in a gold mine in eastern Russia, according to local officials. Part of the mine, located in the Zeysk district of the Amur region, collapsed, and the Emergencies Ministry subsequently reported that 13 men were trapped inside, but regional attorneys said the number may be higher.
The men are contained at a depth of around 410 feet, and emergency and rescue personnel tried to reach them via a ventilation shaft, but officials warned that conditions were difficult and the rescue would be onerous.
Writing on the Telegram social media platform, Amur Governor Vasily Orlov said he believes the men are still alive but added that rescuers had been unable to communicate with them. He explained that emergency responders would drill holes through hundreds of feet of rock to try to open up communications channels and find out if the miners were alive and in what condition.
“Even if the passage does not lead to people, it will be possible to lower a camera into it to assess the situation and lay communication lines,” Mr. Orlov wrote.
Rimma Akhmadeyeeva, a relative of one of the men, told local media that most of the miners hail from Sibay in the Bashkortostan area. The mine is located near the Chinese border.
Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov said that President Vladimir Putin ordered every effort to be made to free the men, and Mr. Kurenkov explained that drilling through the rock was taking place at a speed of around 100 meters per hour.
Local officials say an investigation is underway, but reporters add that such incidents are usually caused by failure to observe safety measures and human error.
There are 1,322 gold mines worldwide, and 127 of them are in Russia. The largest is the Olimpiada in Krasnoyarsk Krai, which produced 1.04 million ounces of gold in 2022. The deadliest incident was the Listvyazhnaya mine disaster in 2021, in which an underground fire killed 40 miners.
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