Nine Chinese gold miners found dead hours after the rescue of their colleagues

There had been celebrations on Sunday when 11 of the miners were rescued earlier than expected

Credit: Xinhua/Shutterstock

Rescuers searching for the remaining workers trapped in a Chinese gold mine after Sunday’s dramatic extraction of 11 survivors found nine bodies, a local official said on Monday, taking the death toll to 10, with one miner still missing.

A total of 22 miners working about 600 metres (2,000 feet) underground were trapped after an explosion at the Hushan mine in Qixia, a major gold-producing region under the administration of Yantai in China’s coastal Shandong province, on Jan. 10.

Eleven were pulled out alive on Sunday after two weeks underground, including one in a very weak condition whom rescue teams had been unable to send supplies to.

They were rescued much earlier than expected thanks to steel pipes supporting blockages in the mine shaft, according to state-media.

An air ventilation shaft, which was the most feasible way to bring up the workers, had been cleared to a depth of 368 metres (1,207 feet), Xiao Wenru, chief engineer for the mine rescue, told Xinhua News Agency on Monday.

"It is at this location we discovered that there were some steel pipes supporting the blockage … there is almost no blockage under the steel pipes," said Xiao.