May 21, 2012
NEW MARKET, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Rescue crews pulled three trapped workers from Young Mine in New Market. Teams were called to New Market around one o'clock Wednesday afternoon on reports of a fire at the mine.
54 people were working in the mine when it happened. Crews on the scene tell us the a drill rig started the fire. The diesel-powered rig, which was about 800 deep into the mine, filled the it with smoke. Firefighters had to put out the drill rig fire before they could get to the miners.
After ventilating the smoke, rescuers were finally able to go down into the mine about an hour and a half after the fire first started. The three trapped miners stayed secure and safe from the smoke by huddling in a bunker. The three were taken to Jefferson Memorial Hospital.
"The three employees that were down there that were not able to immediately evacuate, they were experienced miners, they executed perfectly, they were never in any imminent danger, so their training served them well," said Nyrstar's on-site manager Joel Rheault.
Two other injured miners were taken to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
Young Mine is owned by Belgium-based Nyrstar NV, which bought it and two other mines, Immel Mine in Mascot and Coy Mine in Strawberry Plains for $126 million in late 2009. All three are located in the Mascot-Jefferson City District and mine Mississippi Valley-type zinc ore.
According to a fact sheet provided by the company, at full strength, the three mines are expected to produce 210 dry metric tonnes of zinc concentrate at a zinc grade of 62%, which is enough to keep its smelter in Clarksville running at full capacity.
