The body of a second miner has been found, dimming hopes in the search for a third miner who has been missing for days in a northern Quebec gold mine that unexpectedly flooded with thousands of litres of water.

Rescue workers discovered the body of Bruno Goulet, 36, Monday night.

The first victim was identified earlier on Monday as Dominico Bollini, 44, a father of two.

"We'd found three helmets and a lamp," Pierre Bernaquez, superintendent of human resources for Metanor Resources Inc, said earlier.

"Now we've just found a body.

"This is very painful, but we'll keep going. We were kind of expecting something like this. We were still hoping to find them alive, even if we knew inside that the chances were very slim."

Three men, Bollini, Goulet, and Marc Guay, 31, went down into the Desmaraisville, Que. mine to do repair work on Friday night. When their elevator was pulled back up later that night, the emergency latch was open and the men were not inside.

The men were trapped somewhere between the 11th and 12 levels of the mine Desmaraisville in northern Quebec.

To have survived the men would have had plunge through 50 metres of water and find an air pocket, in pitch blackness.

"I don't know. Unless you're a professional diver -- to achieve that feat, especially in the dark, it's very unlikely they would have been able to survive," Bernaquez said.

Rescue crews are frantically pumping water from the mine hoping to find the two others alive but the depth of the mine and nature of the search has caused major setbacks.

On Sunday night, officials brought in extra pumps to help flush out the water, but Bernaquez said the search is hampered by the lengthy time required to install pumps so far under ground.

Workers had to put in new wiring in order to avoid further accidents before the search could even begin.

Quebec provincial police and the workers' health and safety commission are investigating.

The company has suspended all operations at their Bachelor Lake site, which is about 500 kilometres northwest of Quebec City.