XINTAI, Shandong: Efforts to rescue the 181 miners trapped in two coal shafts in Xintai, East China`s Shandong Province, were boosted on Tuesday with the addition of two large-capacity pumps.

Eleven pumps are now being used to extract 4,850 cu m of water per hour from the mines, Wang Baoshan, who is in charge of the pumping work, said.

An additional power pump was also expected to have been installed by noon on Wednesday, Chen Zhenluo, Party secretary of the Henan provincial coal mine emergency response center, who is here in charge of the rescue installation, said.

The workers became trapped when floodwater swept through a 65-m-wide breach in the Wenhe River levee on August 17, inundating the Huayuan and Minggong mines.

Water resource specialists blamed the disaster largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood-prevention facilities.

At 6 pm on Tuesday, the water level in the shaft of the Huayuan coal mine had dropped to 57.55 m, 35.05 m down from its highest level.

But rescuers have to lower the water level by another 87.55 m to reach the 172 trapped miners.

Bu Changsen, chief of the specialist panel with the rescue headquarters, said the water level inside Huayuan shaft fell by 2.37 m on Tuesday alone, the biggest single daily drop since last Thursday.

The water level at the nearby Minggong mine has been lowered to 57.66 m.

The thermo-electric plant of Huayuan Mining Co Ltd, which was suspended from production after its mine flooded on August 17, resumed operations on Tuesday.

Xinhua

(China Daily 08/30/2007 page5)