ZAMBOANGA CITY, 30 October 2005 — Four rescuers were killed by toxic fumes while attempting to retrieve the corpses of miners from a collapsed gold mine tunnel in the southern Philippines, officials said yesterday.
Secretary Jesus Dureza, presidential aide for Mindanao, said the bodies of the four have been recovered along with those of 7 miners who died during late Wednesday’s accident in Mt. Diwata (also called Diwalwal), a gold rush area in Monkayo town of Compostela Valley province.
Dureza said the presence of the still unknown toxic gas in the tunnel has hampered rescue operations. He said a team of experts from Lepanto Mining Corp. in the northern Philippine province of Benguet arrived yesterday to help retrieve bodies still trapped inside the tunnel.
Officials said the JB Mining and Management Corp., which owns the gold mine, was also trying to clear the toxic fumes by pumping fresh air into the tunnel.
The small-scale mine collapsed on Wednesday after an explosion, believed to have originated from a malfunctioning compressor.
The mining company has said that 11 miners are believed still inside the collapsed mine.
Because of the latest accident, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday ordered government agencies to shut down illegal mining operations at the gold rush area to prevent more deaths caused by unsafe mining practices and intense rivalry.
“I share the grief of the bereaved families in the grave tragedy and I want a strict enforcement of regulations that would forestall a recurrence. Our people on the ground will try to save lives and prevent the loss of more in this gold rush area,” Arroyo said in a statement.
She said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources would conduct an in-depth probe of a mining accident to determine any culpability and violations of the law.
The president has ordered the Office of Civil Defense and other concerned agencies to expedite search and rescue operations.
Local officials had initially said that as many as 18 people were killed and 50 missing in the accident but management said the figures overstated the number of workers at the pit.
Dureza and other officials said only 11 bodies have been recovered so far, including those of four rescuers who were felled by toxic fumes. Local civil defense official Carmelito Lupo yesterday said they were still hoping that those missing were still alive. “We are still crossing our fingers they are still alive,” he told reporters.
Eleven people had earlier been rescued from the mine — nine of whom were suffering from exposure to the fumes.
Small-scale mining operations in Monkayo sometimes employ people on an informal basis, making it difficult to keep track of the number of workers on site.
The mountainous gold-rush area has also been the site of bloody conflicts over mining claim with occasional cases of people sabotaging the mining tunnels of rivals. (With input from Inquirer News Service)
