Society

Water level drops in N China flooded coal mine

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-31 01:46

XIANGNING, Shanxi - The water level dropped Tuesday in a flooded coal mine in north China's Shanxi province, where 153 people were trapped, as rescue efforts entered the third day.

But there was still no communication with the trapped although almost 1,000 rescuers have been racing the clock to pump out water and trying to reach them.

By 6 pm Tuesday, the water level in the shaft had dropped by 15 cm, and a total of 15,000 cubic meters of water had been pumped out of the pit, the rescue headquarters said late Tuesday.

Currently, six pumps are being used to pump up to 645 cubic meters of water per hour.

Altogether 261 workers were in the pit of Wangjialing Coal Mine, which was under construction, when underground water gushed in at about 1:40 pm Sunday. Although 108 were lifted safely to the ground, 153 others were trapped in the shaft.

The mine, which straddles Xiangning county, of Linfen city, and Hejin city, of Yuncheng city, covers about 180 square kilometers.

The mining zone was estimated to have more than 2.3 billion tons of coal reserves, including 1.04 billion tons of proven reserves, according to the company's official website.

The mine, affiliated with the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal Co Ltd, is a major project approved by the provincial government. It is expected to produce 6 million tons of coal annually once in operation.