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Sakhalin’s mine to be submerged due to carbon dioxide high concentration

Earlier on Monday, all 69 people were evacuated because of a high gas concentration in the mine’s air roadway

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, June 15. /TASS/. A part of the Udarnovskaya mine in Sakhalin, where the concentration of carbon dioxide was high, will be submerged, press secretary of the operating company Vladimir Ko told TASS on Monday.

"This passage will be submerged temporarily," he said, adding in 10-15 days the water will be pumped from the mine and it will be open for further work.

Earlier on Monday, all 69 people were evacuated because of a high gas concentration in the mine’s air roadway. No casualties have been reported.

The Udarnovskaya mine is the only one in Sakhalin, where room and pillar method is used. The company has been unprofitable for the recent five years, and the plans were to close it down. The local governor offered financial assistance to the company - over 900 million roubles. The first tranche arrived in December, 2014, and the other one - in May of this year.

In June the mine was working in its regular mode. From beginning of the month, miners have been producing about one thousand tonnes a day. The coal will be exported mostly to Japan. The company’s staff of 516 people works in four shifts.

By the yearend, the mine plans to produce about 300,000 tonnes of coal, and by 2018 the annual production should be increased to about 700,000 tonens.