Rescuers continue looking for eight miners at ALROSA’s Mir mine

MIRNY, Yakutia, Aug 8 (PRIME) -- Emergency services continue a rescue operation at the flooded Mir mine of Russian uncut diamond mining giant ALROSA, where they are looking for eight trapped miners, Deputy Emergency Minister Vladlen Aksyonov told reporters on Tuesday.

“Conditions of the emergency rescue operation are extremely difficult. The mass of water that flooded the mine is in fact threatening the whole facility. Still, we continue searching for the miners,” he said.

“The situation is consistently difficult. Rescuers and miners who are searching for people underground are in very difficult and dangerous conditions. There are more than 40,000 tonnes of water above the mine, which can break through any moment. No one knows when it may happen. The water flow to the pit continues thanks to the pressure of ground waters.”

Still, miners constructed three industrial large-capacity pumps that decrease the risks of flood at search sites. Rescuers are searching for the trapped miners in three shifts, with each shift consisting of 65 people, he said.

The Mir mine in the republic of Yakutia was flooded on August 4. The rescuers brought 143 out of 151 miners to the surface, three of them were hospitalized. ALROSA CEO Sergei Ivanov said on August 6 the company will revise parameters of its operating activity due to the incident at the Mir mine by August 19.

Alexei Alyoshin, head of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision, said that the service will check ALROSA, including its hazardous production sites, from September 4 through September 29. The Investigative Committee said in a separate statement that the committee opened a criminal case on safety rules violations during mining works in connection with the flooding.

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