Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Searchers find second body in flooded Que. mine; search on for a third miner
DESMARAISVILLE, Que. - The bodies of two missing miners were discovered Monday at a flooded gold mine in northern Quebec as rescue workers continued frantically to pump water from hundreds of metres below ground level in the faint hope that a third miner would be found alive.
The two victims were identified as Dominico Bollini, 44, a father of two, and Bruno Goulet, 36. Still missing was 31-year old Marc Guay.
Pierre Bernaquez, superintendent of human resources for Metanor Resources Inc., said the search for the trapped miners was "very painful."
"We were kind of expecting something like this. We were still hoping to find them alive, even if we knew inside that the chances were very slim," Bernaquez said after the first body was recovered.
The three men were trapped somewhere between the 11th and 12th levels of the gold mine in Desmaraisville in northern Quebec.
To have survived from that area, Bernaquez said, they would have had to plunge through 50 metres of water and, in pitch darkness, found an air pocket.
Officials have likened the flooded mine to a small lake.
"I don't know. Unless you're a professional diver - to achieve that feat, especially in the dark, it's very unlikely they would have been able to survive," Bernaquez said.
Officials have said they don't know what caused the flooding.
Bollini, Goulet and Guay went down to do repair work on Friday night. When the elevator was pulled back up, it was empty.
Bollini and Goulet worked for Metanor Resources, while Guay is an employee of mining contractor Montali.
Authorities said that removing the water from about 500 metres below ground level was a painstaking process.
"It takes time to install pumps so far underground," Bernaquez said.
And before the pumps started working, electricians had to quickly put in new wiring while following strict security regulations to avoid further accidents, he said.
Quebec provincial police and the workers' health and safety commission were investigating the cause of the accident.
All mining operations have been suspended.
Shares in Metanor Resources (TSXV:MTO) fell more than 20 per cent Monday after authorities confirmed the death.
The junior gold miner's stock lost 12.5 cents or 21.6 per cent to 45.5 cents on a high trading volume of 3.6 million shares.
