Yang Qinghei, deputy secretary of the county Party committee, told a press conference that, although the exact amount of money spent on rescuing the 69 miners was still not known, the sum was huge.

He said that a preliminary plan had been drawn up to share the expenditure. The Sanmenxia city authorities will cover the public health expenditure and the Shaanxian county authorities will pay for the resources used for the rescue operation, according to Yang.

"The remaining bill will be paid by Zhijian coal mine," said Yang.

The mine, built in 1958, is a state-owned one operated by Zhijian Mining Co., Ltd.

It has a designed annual production capacity of 210,000 tons, but actually produces 300,000 tons every year, which is forbidden by the State Administration of Work Safety.

The coal mine has claimed that it had lost more than ten million yuan (about 1.25 million US dollars) on the rescue work.

A flooding occurred at around 8:40 a.m. on Sunday at the Zhijian coal mine in Sanmenxia's Shaanxian county, about 200 kilometers west of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, when 102 miners were working underground. Thirty-three managed to escape.

All the remaining 69 miners, who were trapped for more than three days, were rescued by early Wednesday afternoon.