An engineer and two workers have died inside a mining hole more than 60 feet deep in an area called Los Hoyos in Mariano Cestero in the north western province of Restauracion.
The fatalities were named as civil engineer Ramon Gutierrez Parra (Monchy), aged 39, Mario Santana Duran and Moreno de la Rosa, from Villa Los Almacigos in Santiago Rodriguez province.
Jesus Gutierrez aged 31 and brother of the dead engineer and Virgilio de la Rosa Cuevas, cousin of Moreno de la Rosa, who also died, were rushed to Ramon Adriano Villalona hospital in Loma de Cabrera after trying to rescue the victims, but they were subsequently discharged.
Emergency services personnel and police agents were on the scene where other excavations could be seen, which were said by some to be illegal.
The incident took place on Monday afternoon, 17 March and the bodies could not be brought out of the hole due to a lack of equipment and oxygen. The work was expected to resume yesterday, Tuesday 18 March.
Eyewitnesses told reporters that the three men had died after another unidentified person turned on an electric generator where they were looking for gold.
The preliminary report by the doctor who examined Herrera’s body says that he died of carbon monoxide inhalation and that his two companions had probably died from the same cause.
Meanwhile, Canada-based mining company Unigold denied responsibility for the deaths of the three workers and the injuries suffered by the other two men.
Unigold claimed that the people who were affected were not authorized to undertake the prospecting search.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/3/18/314793/Muere-un-ingeniero-y-dos-obreros-en-un-hoyo-en-Restauracion
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/03/18/3-die-in-mining-accident-in-dominican-republic/