The accident occurred in the Xinjiang region, in the northwest of the country. Twenty-two minors could be evacuated.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Rescue is mobilized on Sunday December 25 in China to help 18 people trapped underground after the collapse of a gold mine in the Xinjiang region (northwest), according to the Official China Média .
The incident occurred on Saturday around 1:40 p.m. (6:40 a.m. in Paris) in the canton of Yining, in the autonomous prefecture Kazakhe in Ili, said the China Nouvelle agency. The area is located a hundred kilometers from Kazakhstan.
Forty people worked underground during the incident. Twenty-two minors were able to be transported on the surface but 18 remain trapped. “Rescue operations are underway to recover minors,” said China Nouvelle on Saturday evening.
Mines safety has improved in recent decades in China, as is the media coverage of these incidents, many of which had once passed over in silence. But accidents still occur regularly, due to the danger inherent in the sector and the sometimes random application of the safety instructions.
In September 2021, 19 miners trapped underground after the collapse of a coal mine in the province of Qinghai (northwest) had been found dead after long research. Two months later, two minors who were blocked in a flooded coal mine in the Shanxi (North) died and 20 others had been saved after rescue operations.