The fire in a shaft at the Vershino-Darsunsky mine in the Chita Region, five time zones east of the capital, broke out at 8:15 a.m. Moscow time (4:15 a.m. GMT). The blaze has been localized and there have been no reports about any fatalities or injuries.
Local administration officials said the fire was likely to have been caused by a failure to observe fire safety regulations during welding work.
"Those men who remain underground are being brought out through horizontal worked-out shafts," a source said. "We have no contact with them."
Administration officials said rescue teams and paramedics were ready to provide assistance to miners at any time.
Mines in the former Soviet Union have endured a poor safety record in the last fifteen years. Three miners were killed in a blast in another Siberian shaft in August and six men lost their lives in an accident at a Ukrainian pit in the same month.
