According to various news outlets, including the wire service Xinhua, the two men – identified in earlier reports as Hernan Alfonso Berrera Pena and John Freddy Ordonez Trivino – are about 35 meters underground at the La Esperanza mine in the northeast region of the country.

"We are analyzing which will be the safest method for the rescuers to bring the corpses to the surface," Colombian Geology and Mining Institute Edgar Morales said.

The explosion occurred October 11, and gas accumulation is suspected as the cause of the incident. Five miners were inside the mine at the time, but three escaped.

The El Esperanza incident follows an explosion reported earlier this month at another Colombia mine, an event that reportedly took the lives of several workers.

While some media outlets reported five dead, regional disaster chief Luis Alfonso Tarazona told the Associated Press two weeks ago that six miners were killed at the San Roque operation in Sardinata, in the state of Norte Santander.

The names of the workers were not released.

Colombian officials investigating cause are also citing an accumulation of gas at that operation. Eight miners were working an estimated 800 meters underground at the time of that explosion.

Before this incident, the South American country had recorded 73 mining deaths in 2010, all from the San Fernando blast in the northwestern state of Antioquia in June.