Photo : Collected
A rescue operation at the Pioneer mine in Russia's far eastern Amur Region, where 13 miners have been trapped by a rock fall for two weeks, has been stopped due to the risk of secondary collapse, the mine's operator said on Monday (1 April).
On March 18, rock collapsed at the Pioneer gold mine in the Zeysky district of the Amur Region, which prompted the authorities to introduce an emergency regime in the area.
"On Monday, a decision was made to terminate the rescue operation at the Pioneer mine," gold mining company Pokrovskiy Rudnik said.
The lives of rescuers and mine workers involved in the operation are "at risk of death" given "the high possibility of another collapse" of over 200,000 cubic meters (260,000 cubic yards) of rock mass and flooding in the underground workings, the statement said.
The results of drilling at the Pioneer mine have shown that the workings, where the miners could be trapped, are filled with rock mass, ice and water, the statement added.
The trapped miners' families will receive a one-off payment of annual salary from the mine's operator and monthly payments for their children until they reach age 18, the statement added.
On March 19, specialists started to bore a hole to the possible location of the 13 miners trapped in the mine. Initially, the emergency services estimated the rock volume at 9,000 cubic meters, with 3,000 of them lifted to the surface. The updated data showed that the total volume of the collapsed rock was almost 194,500 cubic meters.
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