The rescue on Friday of four miners trapped for 36 days inside a collapsed gypsum mine in Shandong Province has prompted the city government to intensify the search for the remaining 13 missing miners. Linyi Mayor Zhang Shuping said that they have never given up search-and-rescue efforts for the missing miners and is organizing experts to offer new rescue solutions.
At the same time, Linyi Mayor Zhang Shuping said on Sunday that the city would inspect the 212 non-coal mining companies Linyi and ban from operating the miners who have safety risks, reported China Daily.
Besides pursuing an intensified probe into the Dec. 25 accident, the city will repair more than 1 million square meters of land damaged by gypsum mining. The roads near the Yurong mine have deep cracks and there is a large l10 meters deep on a nearby farmland.
Shuping formed a team made up of government officials and experts to investigate the mine collapse.
The mine belongs to Yurong Trade and Commerce, a Pingyi County-based mining firm whose owner and CEO committed suicide after the accident which has killed one miner. Besides the four rescued workers, 11 others had been rescued earlier after the collapse.
The four men are now in stable condition and have been moved to regular wards on Sunday from the intensive care unit. However, they would remain under close observation because of the damage on the health of the miners due to the long period they were trapped underground.
To rescue the 29 miners, around 1,000 people worked round the clock. Among the difficulties the encountered in saving the trapped workers were falling rocks, carbon monoxide emissions, bursts of water and unstable geological structure of the area, reported Xinhua News Agency.
A rescuer explained that the access shaft was blocked and destroyed by very heavy rocks. They had to drill another shaft 220 meters deep through gypsum, sandstone and limestone.