OUGADOUGOU (Reuters) -Rescue workers have found no survivors in a rescue chamber inside Trevali Mining Corp’s flooded Perkoa zinc mine in Burkina Faso where eight miners have been missing since April 16, the government said on Tuesday.
There had been some hope during a month-long search and rescue operation that the men might have reached the chamber, which is stocked with food and water and located around 570 metres below ground.
“The rescue teams have opened the refuge chamber, unfortunately it is empty,” the government’s information service said in a statement posted on social media.
“Everything suggests that the miners were unable to reach the refuge chamber at the moment when the flood happened and searches are ongoing,” the statement said.
Canada-based Trevali did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both the company and the government have launched investigations into the causes of the incident.
A Trevali executive said last week that the company was caught off guard by a torrential downpour during the West African country’s dry season.
(Reporting by Thiam NdiagaWriting by Sofia Christensen and Estelle ShirbonEditing by James Macharia Chege)
