Death tolls rises to 25 in Siberian mine fire

Highland Gold Mining (HGM-L) says production will resume later this week at the Darasun gold mine in the Chita region of eastern Siberia where an underground fire has killed 25 miners.

Darasun is both an underground and open-pit operation and Highland said it would restart production in the open pit but needed more time to inspect an underground shaft where the fire continues to burn.

The bodies of the last four miners killed during the blaze were found and brought to surface on Sept. 10.

The fire broke out 100 metres underground on Sept. 7 when 64 miners were at work. Thirty-nine miners managed to escape.

The fire is believed to have been started by a welding accident in the mine shaft. Most of the dead workers were in jobs that would have been done close to the shaft, or on the welding and timbering crew.

Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) holds a 20% interest in Highland.

Darasun is the smaller of Highland Gold’s two operational mines in Russia. It produced 11,761 oz. gold in the first half of 2006, about 13% of the company’s total output.