Efforts to reach five miners still missing after a gold mine collapse
in Nicaragua continued on Saturday, as relatives waited anxiously for
news at a makeshift camp nearby.
Rescue workers and trapped miners digging away at opposite sides of rock and mud that blocked the mine had on Friday succeeded in freeing at least 20 men at the El Comal gold and silver mine near the town of Bonanza.
On Saturday, hundreds of relatives and fellow miners prayed outside the mine as rescuers lined up ladders along a 300-foot long tunnel leading towards where the men were trapped. The mine cuts into the side of a mountain and then goes upward.
Otilo Duarte, High Commissioner of National Police in Bonanza, said all the rescue services were working along with the miners and the mining company in a united effort to find the missing men.
The gold and silver mine is on a concession held by Hemco, which is owned by Colombia-based Minero SA. But the trapped miners themselves are freelancers allowed to work in the area if they sell any gold they find to the firm, mining company spokesman Gregorio Downs told The Associated Press.
Downs said the company had warned miners about the danger of working in the El Comal area, especially after two miners died in a rain-caused landslide there last month.
Rescue workers and trapped miners digging away at opposite sides of rock and mud that blocked the mine had on Friday succeeded in freeing at least 20 men at the El Comal gold and silver mine near the town of Bonanza.
On Saturday, hundreds of relatives and fellow miners prayed outside the mine as rescuers lined up ladders along a 300-foot long tunnel leading towards where the men were trapped. The mine cuts into the side of a mountain and then goes upward.
Otilo Duarte, High Commissioner of National Police in Bonanza, said all the rescue services were working along with the miners and the mining company in a united effort to find the missing men.
The gold and silver mine is on a concession held by Hemco, which is owned by Colombia-based Minero SA. But the trapped miners themselves are freelancers allowed to work in the area if they sell any gold they find to the firm, mining company spokesman Gregorio Downs told The Associated Press.
Downs said the company had warned miners about the danger of working in the El Comal area, especially after two miners died in a rain-caused landslide there last month.
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