Hopes for the survival of the 181 miners trapped in two separate, flooded coal mines in east China faded on Monday, but the search operations have continued.

Workers utilized five pumps to expel water from the two mines. The Huayuan Coal Mine is about 150 km south of Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong, and the Minggong Coal Mine is 10 km from the Huayuan Mine.

The water level in the Huayuan Coal Mine continued to drop after the breached levee was repaired early on Sunday. At 6:00 AM on Monday, the water level in the mine, where four pumps were operating, had fallen by 8.9 meters in 12 hours.

But rescuers say that it will take at least half a month to drain all the flooded water from the Huayuan Coal Mine. Survival chances for the miners are slim, according to the rescuers.

The flooding happened on Friday, first at the coal mine of Huayuan Mining Co. Ltd in Xintai City, and later at Minggong Coal Mine. When the flooding struck around 2:30 PM, 756 miners were working underground at the Huayuan Coal Mine. 584 miners managed to escape.

Ninety-five miners were working inside the Minggong Coal Mine at the time of the flooding. The flood occurred at around 8:45 PM on Friday. 86 miners escaped.

Torrential rains had swept the area over Xintai on Friday and early Saturday, dropping 232 mm of water and triggering a flash flood, causing a 50-meter breach in a levee on the Wenhe River.

Floodwater from the river poured through an obsolete shaft into the Huayuan Mine at 2:30 PM on Friday.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao late on Saturday asked rescuers to "Promptly mobilize all equipment and available personnel. Take all necessary measures to rescue the trapped miners".

Four temporary working groups have been set up to deal with the aftermath of the flooding at both mines, including one for compensation and another for the reception of relatives of the trapped miners.

Of the 172 trapped miners at the Huayuan Coal Mine, 111 were confirmed to be formally employed, The rest were said to be transient rural workers.

Huayuan Mining Co. Ltd., built in 1957, is a licensed enterprise with an annual capacity of 750,000 tons.

Minggong Coal Mine is capable of producing 150,000 tons of coal a year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2007)