Mine burial accident on the 10th day... Rescue operations delayed due to pit collapse, then resumed

Distance to isolated worker 24m
Rescue authorities simultaneously attempt to confirm survival response from the borehole and secure entry path

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] On the 10th day of the zinc mining collapse accident in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongbuk Province, although the rescue operation was briefly delayed due to a collapse at the end of the tunnel (the dead end of the mine tunnel) on the 4th, work soon resumed, and efforts to secure the access route are ongoing. The remaining distance to the point where trapped workers are expected to be is about 24 meters.

The rescue authorities announced that around 3 p.m. that day, while removing fallen rocks at the closure point of the '3rd Main Tunnel' (the upper tunnel on the plan view) located 273 meters horizontally, the tunnel end collapsed, causing workers to evacuate temporarily before resuming work. Lee Sang-kwon, deputy director of the mining company, explained, "The front tunnel was completely blocked, and the workers could not check ahead, but the upper part collapsed."

The rock chunks that poured down from the upper part of the tunnel were tangled together, ranging in size from 1 meter in diameter to as small as 10 centimeters. The workers retreated about 2 meters and resumed securing the access route by installing steel supports called 'dongbari' at the 271-meter horizontal point.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The closed section blocking the working tunnel was about 30 meters long, but through excavator (shovel) work, a space of about 6 meters was secured. Accordingly, the horizontal distance remaining to be secured inside the tunnel by the rescue authorities is 24 meters out of 295 meters. The trapped miners need to advance 30 meters further from the 295-meter horizontal point to reach the '3rd Tunnel' where they were at the time of the accident. The previously considered rescue route, the 'ramp way' (the lower tunnel on the plan view), could not be blasted as it is expected that the trapped miners had evacuated there.

On this day, 36 workers were divided into four teams and deployed to secure the rescue access route inside the tunnel. The rescue authorities are simultaneously conducting survival response checks for the two trapped miners and securing the rescue access route.

The rescue authorities accelerated the survival signal detection work by deploying 11 drilling machines around the 'planned rescue point' area. Additional drilling work is being carried out near the first vertical shaft (8th and 10th boreholes), where no drilling had been done before, but difficulties are being encountered due to the steep terrain.

The 8th borehole, where a 200mm diameter drilling machine was operating, will be reworked with a 76mm diameter drill to reduce the borehole diameter. The target depth is 200 meters underground. It is located on terrain about 30 meters higher than the previous drilling site (target depth 170 meters underground), so the ground must be dug deeper.

Of the 11 drilling machines, three (3rd, 4th, and 6th boreholes) reached the target depth of 170 meters underground the previous day and are inspecting the tunnel interior with an endoscope and acoustic detection devices, but no significant response has been detected yet. The 13th borehole, where a military-owned drilling machine was deployed, reached the target point around 3 p.m. that day and is preparing for endoscopic and acoustic detection.

The authorities sent down food and beverages (such as rice gruel), medicines (including saline, comprehensive painkillers, and antipyretics), thermal blankets, and letters from family members through the hole drilled the previous day.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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