Rescuers pump flooded mine to find workers

Rescue workers in Quebec continued painstaking efforts to drain water from a flooded gold mine in the province's northern region, where three miners had been missing since Friday night.

Hopes of finding the three men alive are growing dim on Monday, more than 48 hours after the accident.

Bruno Goulet, 36, Dominico Bollini, 44, and Marc Guay, 31 were doing repair work in a mine shaft at the Bachelor Lake facility in Desmaraisville, Que., when the flood happened.

Goulet and Bollini work for Metanor Resources while Guay was employed by mining contractor Montali. They descended at 11:30 p.m. on Friday to level 11 and 12 of the mine, about 485 metres below ground and well below sea level.

When the elevator was pulled back up, it was empty. Rescue workers were immediately dispatched to the facility and began pumping water, but the sheer volume hampered rescue efforts, even after backup pumps were brought to the site, emergency officials said.

The rescue team hoped to access the mine shaft by Monday morning, said Metanor human resources superintendent Pierre Bernanquez.

"They needed time to install pumps so far underground," and had to quickly install backup electrical circuits while trying to not trigger another accident, he told The Canadian Press.

'It's like a little lake'

"We underestimated the quantity of water underground," Bernaquez admitted. "It's like a little lake."

Bernaquez said he hoped the men found a pocket of air at the 11th level.

All mining operations at the facility have been suspended.

Quebec's workplace and safety commission (CSST) and the province's provincial police force are investigating the accident.

Bernaquez said Metanor will let the CSST determine the cause of flooding.

"At this moment, we are concentrating on rescue efforts," he said.

About 70 people work at the Desmaraisville gold mine.