"According to our preliminary conclusions, the fire broke out after production rules were violated," Oleg Mitvol said.
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.
As of 6.00 p.m. Moscow time (2.00 p.m. GMT), 33 workers had been evacuated from the mine and 31 remained underground.
Mitvol said the agency had long-standing claims to mine-owner Highland Cold Mining.
"Tomorrow we will start an inspection of all enterprises belonging to Highland Gold Mining and will check if our previous instructions were fulfilled or why they were not fulfilled," he said.
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.
