The person responsible for the design of a gold ore dam that collapsed and resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people was detained by police on Monday in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, according to a local official source.

 

Wang Jianjun, 34, an engineer of a design and research institute in Xi'an, produced a draft design for the sixth expansion project of the dam operated by the Zhen'an County Gold Mining Co Ltd, police said.

 

Liu Guowen, board chairman of the company, asked Zhang Zhihua, director of the company's ore dressing workshop, to carry out the expansion work using Wang's draft design, according to police. Both Liu and Zhang were detained by police Sunday.

 

The dam collapsed at 6:40 PM on April 30 when construction work was underway, burying approximately 40 rooms in the homes of nine families and leaving 17 people missing and five injured.

 

To date 15 bodies have been recovered and a further two are still missing. An investigation into the cause of the dam collapse is underway.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2006)