By Xiao Wan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-16 09:41

After scrambling 15 km for more than 20 hours, Wang Yong, a worker in the town of Qingping, Mianzhu, finally ran into a disaster relief team.

"We are in urgent need of food, water and medicine," he told them.

With all roads blocked and telecommunications down, the city of Mianzhu remains cut off from the outside world.

Monday's earthquake also damaged the largest industrial project in the region, the Qingping phosphate mine.

As of yesterday, 30 deaths had been confirmed at the mine, with many more people missing or injured, China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina), which owns it, said.

Ren Jianxin, president of ChemChina, said the firm will "try everything to rescue the workers as soon as possible", but the devastated roads continue to hamper rescue efforts.

As well as the Qingping mine, 10 ChemChina subsidiaries in Sichuan and Gansu were hit by the quake. Production has been halted at some of them to ensure workers' safety, Ren said.

Much of the raw materials for the company's organic silicon production is extracted from Wenchuan, the epicenter of the quake. Prices of organic silicon are likely to rise as a result, bosses said.

ChemChina has already begun planning the reconstruction work, Ren said.

Several other power generation plants have been hit by the quake, with thousands of people still missing.

As of yesterday, just 80 of the 5,000 workers at China Huaneng Group's Taipingyi hydropower plant, located just 30 km from the quake's epicenter, had been accounted for, the company said.