2 more miners found dead in gold mine tunnel
Local rescuers had recovered the bodies of the two remaining miners trapped inside a gold mine tunnel in the town of T’boli in South Cotabato after Thursday’s power interruption that cut off air supply and light in the tunnel, a police officer said Saturday.
Senior Inspector Marvin Dua-Dua, head of police in T’boli, said the bodies of Boy and Adel Olin, who worked for the Tribal Mining Company (TMC), were found late Friday.
He said like their siblings, whose bodies were earlier recovered, Boy and Adel died of suffocation.
The Olin siblings were inside the tunnel in Kematu village when power suddenly went off.
Dua-Dua said they might have become disoriented when the lights went out and the air thinned because the compressor supplying oxygen to the tunnel malfunctioned.
The bodies of Toto and Gary Olin were retrieved on Thursday.
When Boy and Adel failed to come out, rescuers launched a search operation.
Their bodies were found Friday deeper into the tunnel.
Ramon Ponce de Leon, South Cotabato environmental management office chief, said the rotational brownout in Mindanao cut off the electricity to the machine providing oxygen to the tunnel.
Bai Zorahayda Taha, regional director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, said she instructed her staff to provide assistance to the victims’ families.
Category: ResourceAsia
