A landslide in Russia’s Amur area pinned the miners greater than 120 metres underground.
Russian emergency companies have known as a halt to an operation to rescue 13 males trapped in a gold mine within the far east of the nation.
The operator of the Pioneer gold mine introduced the choice on Monday, two weeks after a landslide on the facility within the Amur area close to the Chinese language border buried the miners greater than 120 metres (about 400 ft) underground.
The assertion by operator Pokrovsky Mine mentioned search operations confirmed caverns, the place the miners might have been sheltering, have been flooded, elevating fears the 13 are lifeless.
It added that the rescue operation had turn into too harmful to proceed.
“On 1 April, a choice was made to terminate the rescue operation on the Pioneer mine,” the assertion mentioned.
“The outcomes of drilling confirmed the areas the place the miners might be are crammed with rock mass and water. The lives of rescuers and mine employees concerned within the operation are prone to loss of life,” because of the potential for one other collapse, it added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the termination of the rescue mission was “not excellent news”.
“All of the measures that might have been taken in reference to the state of affairs that arose have been taken. However the state of affairs is what it’s,” he advised reporters.
The regional governor mentioned emergency employees had tried to save lots of the miners “at nice threat to their lives” and that the households of the miners can be given monetary help.
The gold mine is among the largest on the planet and some of the productive in Russia. It’s owned by sanctions-hit Russian copper and gold producer Ural Mining And Metallurgical Firm (UMMC).
Officers in Amur have opened an investigation right into a suspected breach of security guidelines. The managing director of the mine was arrested final week, the regional department of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates critical offences, mentioned.
Accidents at mines are comparatively widespread in Russia, the place lax security requirements and weak enforcement have been blamed for a number of tragedies.
In 2021, an accident at a coal mine in Siberia killed 40 miners.
