* Death toll of tremor in Polish copper mine rises to eight

* Mine owned by state-run copper producer KGHM (Adds information about the final outcome of tremor)

By Wojciech Zurawski and Marcin Goclowski

WARSAW, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The final death toll of an earth tremor causing rockfalls deep underground in Europe's largest copper mine in southwestern Poland rose to eight miners, the mine's operator KGHM said on Wednesday.

The tremor hit the Rudna copper mine at 2009 GMT on Tuesday, KGHM said, causing extensive damage, but the mine remained mostly open.

Earlier on Wednesday KGHM officials said the tremor had killed five miners and that rescuers had been looking for three other trapped elsewhere in the mine. In their latest statement, the officials said the three miners had been .

"The rescuers have found the three miners' bodies next to each other. Thus, the outcome of this tragic tremor is eight casualties," state-run news agency PAP quoted the Rudna mine director Pawel Markowski as saying.

"The rescue operation lasted for 24 hours. We have done everything to save the miners, unfortunately we lost", Markowski added, calling the tremor KGHM's biggest tragedy in the past 55 years.

The epicentre of the tremor was 1,500 metres below the surface, with a magnitude of 3.4, PAP reported.

Sections of tunnels hundreds of metres below the surface were blocked by rocks, preventing access to the missing miners.

Markowski had said earlier that it was the first time in KGHM's history that such a distant tremor had caused such extensive damage.

State-run KGHM said the Rudna mine, in operation since 1974, had 11 shafts reaching a depth of 1,244 metres.

"We are all shocked by the scale of this tragedy, which occurred in a place we had assessed as exposed to a moderate level of risk," KGHM Chief Executive Officer Radoslaw Domagalski-Labedzki told reporters earlier on Wednesday.

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Domagalski-Labedzki also said nine people working in the mine had suffered spinal and head injuries and five were in hospital. KGHM's spokeswoman said none were in a life-threatening condition.

"We all have high hopes that the news will be positive. This does not change the fact that the rescue operation is taking place in difficult conditions," he said before rescuers had confirmed the eighth death.

Officials at KGHM said some of the underground tunnels still blocked by debris were eight metres wide and four metres high.

Tremors often occur in underground mines as removing ore and digging tunnels from beneath the surface weakens the structure of the surrounding rocks. But most tremors are harmless.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo cancelled the government's weekly cabinet meeting and visited the mine late in the afternoon.

"We are ready to help whenever such a need arises. We hope that those who have not been found yet will come back alive," Szydlo said before the final deathtoll was known.

Shares in KGHM were up 0.55 percent on Wednesday. The company said it was too early to assess the damage and costs caused by the accident.

"After the rescuing operation is finished, a special commission with the representatives of the State Mining Authority and KGHM experts will be convened. Only the part of the mine where the accident took place will be halted," a KGHM spokeswoman said.

KGHM is one of the biggest copper and silver producer in the world. Its copper output stood at almost 700,000 tonnes in 2015. (Reporting by Wojciech Zurawski in Krakow, Marcin Goclowski, Marcin Goettig and Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw; Writing by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</s>Rescuers were searching for four missing miners in southwestern Poland on Wednesday after an earth tremor caused rockfalls deep underground in a copper mine, killing four, the mine’s operator KGHM said.

The tremor hit the Rudna copper mine shortly after 8pm Irish time on Tuesday, KGHM said, causing extensive damage.

Sections of tunnels hundreds of metres below the surface were blocked by rocks, preventing access to the missing miners, company officials said.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have good news. Rescuers have reached the fourth miner, he is dead,” director of the mine, Pawel Markowski, told a news conference.

“We are continuing the operation, trying to locate the next miners,” he said. “They are a dozen or so metres away.”

Mr Markowski said the fourth victim was a young mechanic who had worked for KGHM for 15 months. The third victim had just worked for a month at the mine.

Some of the missing miners could be inside a collapsed machinery chamber, Mr Markowski said earlier.

State-run KGHM said the Rudna pit, the largest copper mine in Europe, had 11 shafts reaching as deep as 1,244m (4,000ft) below the surface.

KGHM chief executive Radoslaw Domagalski-Labedzki said two of the miners killed were aged 33 and 47 and their families had already been informed. One of these miners died after he was taken to the surface, the company said.

“We are all shocked by the scale of this tragedy which took place in a place we assessed was exposed to a moderate level of risk,” Mr Domagalski-Labedzki told reporters.

He also said nine people working in the mine suffered spinal and head injuries and five were still in hospital. “The rescue operation is taking place non-stop,” Domagalski-Labedzki told reporters.

“We all have high hopes that the news will be positive. This does not change the fact that the rescue operation is taking place in difficult conditions,” he said before rescuers confirmed the third casualty.

The epicentre of the tremor was situated 1,500m below the surface and had a magnitude of 3.4, state news agency PAP reported.

Officials at KGHM said some of the underground tunnels still blocked by debris were eight metres wide and four metres high.

Tremors often occur in underground mines as removing ore and digging tunnels from beneath the surface weakens the structure of the surrounding rocks, but most are harmless.

Poland’s prime minister Beata Szydko has cancelled the government’s weekly sitting and is heading to the mine, which has been operating since 1974, her spokesman Rafal Bochenek was quoted by PAP as saying.

The company said it was too early to assess the damage and costs caused by the accident.

“After the rescuing operation is finished, a special commission with the representatives of the state mining authority and KGHM experts will be convened. Only the part of the mine where the accident took place will be halted,” a KGHM spokeswoman said.

KGHM is one of the biggest copper and silver producer in the world. Its copper output stood at almost 700,000 tonnes in 2015.</s>WARSAW, Poland — A spokeswoman for a Polish mining company says rescuers have recovered a body after a massive cave-in at a copper mine following an earth tremor, bringing the confirmed death toll to two, with six people still missing.

Jolanta Piatek, spokeswoman for the KGHM Polska Miedz, or Polish Copper, mining corporation, said Wednesday that the body was found underground. Earlier, one of nine miners brought to the surface shortly after the cave-in had also died. Five others have been hospitalized, while the search continues for those still missing.</s>The death toll from an earth tremor at the Rudna copper mine in southwestern Poland has risen to five, the mine's director Pawel Markowski said on Wednesday.

"The body of the fifth miner has been found," Markowski told a news conference broadcast on local television.

The tremor hit the Rudna copper mine, owned by KGHM at 2009 GMT on Tuesday, the company said, causing extensive damage.

Rescuers are still for three missing miners.</s>At least two miners are dead and six are missing after an earthquake hit the Rudna copper mine in southwestern Poland. Rough cut (no reporter narration).</s>The Highland Valley Copper mine is operating at 60 per cent capacity this week due to damage to one of its ore stockpile covers.

The cover buckled at approximately 10 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 26), but no one was hurt in the incident.

“While work is underway to further investigate what caused the incident and what it’s going to take to repair the domes, we’re expected to be operating at about 60 per cent throughput for up to a week,” said Highland Valley Copper superintendent of environment and community affairs Peter Martell.

He said some material from the dome fell on the stockpile, which will need to be removed before production can resume at full capacity.

All other areas of the mine are operating normally.</s>Have you ever been three or four rounds into a drinking session and thought, “I wish there were some live birds in this bar that I could learn about”? Well, that’s weird, but the Copper Rocket has you covered at this fundraiser. Handlers from the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey bring over some of their favorite squawk-beasts for an educational presentation. In the middle of a bar. What could go wrong? Probably want to leave your pet mice at home for this one.7-10 p.m. Wednesday; The Copper Rocket Pub, 106 Lake Ave., Maitland; $3-$5; letsmakeitathing.com
An earth tremor in Europe's largest copper mine in southwestern Poland causes eight deaths.