Eleven workers trapped for two weeks inside a Chinese gold mine were brought to the surface safely on Sunday, a major success for a disaster-stricken industry and high death toll.
State broadcaster CCTV showed that on Sunday afternoon the workers were transported one by one in baskets, with their eyes protected to protect them after so many days in the dark.
Some clasped their hands in gratitude and many seemed almost too weak to resist. They were quickly covered with coats amid icy temperatures and loaded into ambulances.
Hundreds of rescue workers and officials were on hand and applauded as workers were called from the Qixia mine, a jurisdiction under Yantai in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.
cnsphoto via REUTERS
A worker was reported to have died from a head injury after the explosion that deposited large amounts of debris on the shaft on January 10 while the mine was still under construction.
The fate of 10 others who were clandestine at the time is unknown. Authorities have arrested mine managers for delaying notification of the crash.
The cause of the crash is being investigated, but the blast was large enough to release 70 tons of debris that blocked the shaft, disabling elevators and trapping workers underground.
Rescuers drilled parallel axes to send food and nutrients and eventually carried the survivors, 10 of whom had been in a lower chamber and one in a separate area a little closer to the surface.
The official China Daily said on its website that seven of the workers were able to walk to the ambulances on their own.
These prolonged and costly rescue efforts are relatively new to China’s mining industry, which used to reach an average of 5,000 deaths a year. Increased oversight has improved safety, although demand for coal and precious metals continues to drive the corner cut. A new crackdown was ordered after two accidents in the mountainous southwest of Chongqing killed 39 miners last year.