Chinese rescuers drilled several fresh holes yesterday to reach at least 12 gold miners trapped underground for nine days, as dwindling food supplies and rising waters threatened their survival. Twenty-two workers have been stuck 540 metres underground at the Hushan mine near Yantai in east China's Shandong province after an explosion damaged the entrance. After days without any signs of life, some of the trapped miners managed to send up a note attached to a metal wire which rescuers had dropped into the mine on Sunday. Pleading for help, the handwritten message said a dozen of them were alive but surrounded by water and in need of urgent medical supplies. A subsequent phone call with the miners revealed 11 were in one location 540 metres below the surface with another -- apparently alone -- trapped a further 100 metres down.