'Bonghwa Mine Accident' Enters 9th Day... Will Rescue Efforts Accelerate?

Bonghwa Gwangsan Burial Accident Enters 9th Day... Rescue Efforts Finally 'Speed Up'
Ministers of Industry and Employment Visited Site the Day Before... Met Workers' Families
Criticism of 'Delayed Response'... Initial 1st and 2nd Drilling Attempts Failed
Accident Company Used 20-Year-Old Blueprints with Up to 30m Error

Search for Miners Trapped in Bonghwa Mine Begins with Endoscope
(Bonghwa=Yonhap News) On the 9th day of the mining collapse accident in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongbuk, two of the drilling machines deployed to confirm the survival signals of the two trapped workers reached the "expected rescue point" on the 3rd. Rescue personnel at the site are exploring inside the tunnel using endoscopic equipment. 2022.11.3 [Provided by the families of the trapped workers. Redistribution and DB prohibited]
mtkht@yna.co.kr
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[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] The rescue operation for workers trapped in the mining collapse accident in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongbuk is finally gaining momentum. Given that the initial drilling operations conducted due to government misjudgment all ended in failure, criticism of the 'delayed response' has become unavoidable.

According to related ministries on the 3rd, Minister Lee Chang-yang of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Minister Lee Jeong-sik of the Ministry of Employment and Labor visited the site of the Bonghwa mining collapse accident on the 2nd, eight days after the accident occurred. The two ministers inspected the rescue situation on site and met with the families of the trapped workers for about 10 minutes. It is reported that the two ministers stayed at the site for about an hour.

The collapse accident occurred around 6 p.m. on the 26th of last month at the No. 1 vertical shaft of a zinc mining site located in Jaesan-myeon, Bonghwa, Gyeongbuk, when approximately 900 tons of soil (estimated by the company) poured in. Currently, two workers are trapped about 190 meters underground in the No. 1 vertical shaft. Rescue authorities believe the workers have evacuated to about 170 meters underground.

The two ministers emphasized a 'swift rescue' at the site. Minister Lee Jeong-sik said, "Before applying the Serious Accident Punishment Act, the rescue is an urgent matter," adding, "We will do our utmost in cooperation with related agencies to ensure the workers are rescued as soon as possible." Accordingly, rescue authorities have accelerated efforts to confirm the workers' survival by deploying additional drilling machines procured from the military and private companies to the site starting at midnight on the same day.

However, some view the fact that the heads of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the main ministries responsible for the mining collapse accident, visited the site only eight days after the accident as a clear indication of the government's delayed response. In fact, rescue authorities attempted drilling operations twice on the 29th and 30th of last month, immediately after the collapse, to check the survival of the workers, but all attempts failed. This was because the location of the trapped workers was judged based on mining maps provided by the mining company responsible for the collapse, which were about 20 years old.

The government ultimately wasted more than a week after the accident occurred. Initially, the families of the trapped workers protested, saying they could not trust the mining company’s maps. The drilling results showed a discrepancy of nearly 5 meters between the maps and actual measurements. This is why the government gradually postponed the rescue timeline it had expected on the 29th of last month. On the 1st, rescue authorities said, "It will take at least eight more days."

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, responsible for mining safety, cannot even predict a specific rescue timeline. The ministry is currently conducting rescue operations together with the mining company managing the accident site. A ministry official said, "The company knows the mining structure best," adding, "Since the work situation changes moment by moment, it is difficult to specify the rescue time."

Meanwhile, rescue authorities succeeded in drilling at the 'expected rescue point' located 170 meters underground around 5 a.m. on the same day. From 7:13 a.m., authorities have been exploring inside the shaft using endoscopic equipment. They plan to provide food and medicine once they confirm the workers' survival.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.