New Zealand rescue teams rushed to save 29 miners missing

New Zealand rescue teams rushed to save 29 miners missing after an underground explosion in the mine disaster in the country for the first time in more than 40 years.

Emergency teams were trying to poison gas after the explosion knocked out power to the ventilation system and attempts to contact the missing workers. Two miners who managed to walk to the surface were treated for "moderate" injuries, police said.

"We have not lost hope, but it's a serious situation," Tony Kokshoorn, mayor of Greymouth district, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the mine, told TVNZ at the site. "Rescue teams are working here, doing everything possible. It's a waiting game to ensure that the mine is safe to go down."

Failure can be 3 miles or more from the entrance of the mine, said the station Kokshoorn. It is unknown whether the miners are trapped or shelter, said Peter Whittall, executive director of Pike River Coal Co., which operates the mine on the west coast of southern New Zealand.

The lack composed of 16 employees and contractors Pike River 13, between 17 and 62 years old, Whittall told reporters in Greymouth.

"Nobody has been able to go into hiding at this stage because the risk to personnel entering the mine is still too big," said Whittall. Rescue officials will make a new declaration at the time of the 2 pm local time, he said.

Families gather

Police cordoned off the area while rescuers looked at the vent pipes and the entrance to the coking coal mine, national television images showed. The families of the trapped miners gathered in a lounge near the Red Cross, volunteers will support victims, according to a police statement.

The two miners who escaped, fleeing after he felt the explosion at about 4 pm local time yesterday, said that three others had been making their way to the surface, police said.

While the power outage raises "serious" problems of ventilation, emergency crews are preparing for a rescue attempt, the New Zealand Herald quoted an ambulance service spokesman said unidentified in a report on its website.

"The evidence of air quality carried out due to unknown weather conditions underground," police said in a previous version.

last New Zealand mining disaster occurred in 1967, when 19 people died in an explosion in the Strongman coal mine, also near Greymouth.

China toll

Mining accidents are more common in developing countries like China, where a gas explosion rocked an underground mine in Henan Province, Oct. 16, killing 37. In Chile, 33 men were rescued from a gold and copper mine last month after a ransom longer my world.

An accident at Massey Energy Co. 's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia in April killed 29 people.

China, the world's largest coal consumer, has the record of the mines safety, with an average of seven deaths per day in accidents last year. In Chile, the mining minister, said Laurence Golborne October 25 that the government is likely to announce changes in the health and safety standards at the end of November.

Yesterday's explosion came without warning "high risk," said Andrew Little, National Secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, which represents 71 of about 140 miners. "It has only been in production for a year or so," he said. "Production was delayed because they were not convinced that the ventilation system was right, so I've been very careful with that."

Output Forecast

Pike River is partly owned by India's Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd and Saurashtra Fuels SA., Which also have some of their low ash coking coal low in phosphorus, used by steel makers. The mine is forecast to produce 320,000 to 360,000 metric tons of coal in the year to June, the company said Oct. 19.

Pike River shares fell 14 percent to 61 Australian cents in Sydney trading yesterday before it stopped. The company fell 4.4 percent to 88 cents in New Zealand at the end of Wellington.

Mining employs about 6,000 people in New Zealand, according to government website www.beehive.govt.nz. The industry earned about NZ $ 1100000000 (853 million U.S. dollars) in export revenue in 2009.