Rescuers evacuate all Russian miners from Dalpolimetall mine due to smoke incident
VLADIVOSTOK. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Mine rescuers from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry have evacuated all the miners who were on the mine face at the Nikolaevsky mine belonging to JSC Mining and Metallurgical Complex Dalpolimetall (Primorsky Territory, one of Russia's largest producers of lead concentrate), where a smoke incident occurred, the regional Headquarters of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
"On the afternoon of January 25, the crisis management center received information about visible smoke rising 275 m above the horizon at the Nikolaevsky mine in the Dalnegorsky urban district. Sixty-eight miners who were at the mine were evacuated to the surface," the release says.
There are no casualties or injuries.
Earlier, the emergency services told Interfax that among the main causes under investigation were both natural and man-made factors, including a short circuit.
The regional prosecutor's office, responding to the smoke incident at the Dalpolimetall mine, organized an audit to check for the proper implementation of legislation while ensuring labor safety, including compliance with workers' labor rights, the regional supervisory agency said.
Dalnegorsk prosecutor Alexey Kormilitsyn went to the scene on behalf of the regional prosecutor's office.
The Nikolaevsky mine entered operation in 1982. It mines Vostok-I skarn-polymetallic and Kharkovskaya sheet-like complex configuration deposits at a depth of 700-1200 m. The mine's design production capacity is 500,000 tonnes of ore per year.
In addition to Nikolaevsky, Dalpolimetall is developing the Second Sovietsky mine (design capacity - 300,000 tonnes of ore per year) and the Korolevsky site (60,000 tonnes of ore per year).
Dalpolimetall mines polymetallic ores and processes them in Primorye. The company estimates that the supply of the explored balance reserves of ores at deposits where operations are underway, at the current level of production, is 14-15 years.