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10 august 2017
The water level at the Mir mine in Yakutia continues to increase, while the rescue and search operation for the eight missing miners continues for the 6th day in a row. Groundwater gradually fills the mine workings.
To carry out the search and rescue operations more effectively, combined teams of rescuers of Russia's Ministry for Emergencies and miners of ALROSA were formed.
Vladlen Aksyonov, Deputy Head of the ministry has been working at the mine since the first day of the incident and spent five hours underground, personally assessing the safety for rescuers.
"To understand what the situation is, you need to see it with your own eyes and assess the scale of destruction, the work that needs to be done, and the situation itself – whether it is safe for rescuers or unsafe. I found it necessary to personally go down and inspect the work sites. The situation is complicated – there are multiple blockages, large plugs of clay. Most excavations are completely flooded, but we continue to work on saving people," Aksyonov said.
Examination of mine workings showed that the water level in the mine continues to rise, the hydrological situation is deteriorating. The site of search should be protected from water. Auxiliary tasks, such as the functioning of mine life support systems, delivery and installation of necessary equipment, many other works are carried out directly by the specialists of the enterprise. "In a record time, several powerful pumps were installed to drain water from the mine. Usually, this work takes about a month, but in this situation, all the technical and human capabilities were mobilized. More than 50 people from 4 of our enterprises have installed pumps in 72 hours," said the president of ALROSA, Sergey Ivanov.
The total number of rescuers at the site is 320 people, of which 170 are specialists from the Ministry for Emergencies sent to Mirny from various regions of Russia.