The search for three missing Quebec miners was being hampered by the sheer volume of water that flooded an area of a Metanor Resources gold mine where they were working. (CBC)

The search for three missing Quebec miners kicked into high gear Sunday night but there was little hope the men, who have been missing since Friday night, would be found alive.

Bruno Goulet, 36, Dominico Bollini, 44, and Marc Guay, 31, were doing repair work in a mine shaft at the Bachelor Lake facility in Desmaraisville, Que., late Friday night when the area in which they were working flooded, for reasons the mine owners say remain unclear.

Goulet and Bollini, who both work for Metanor Resources, and Guay, an employee of mining contractor Montali, descended at 11:30 ET Friday night to level 11 and 12 in the mine.

When the elevator they were in was pulled back up, it was empty.

Emergency workers and a team of medics were called to the scene, and a search for the men immediately began. The first set of pumps was also brought in to drain the two levels.

Pierre Bernaquez, superintendent of human resources for Val-d'Or, Que.-based Metanor Resources Inc., said he's hopeful the three men found refuge in a pocket of air in the mine's 11th level, about 485 metres below ground.

But he said the miners' chances of survival are slim.

The painstaking effort to remove the water from hundreds of metres below ground level posed its own set of challenges.

"It takes time to install pumps so far underground," Bernaquez said.

Before the pumps started working, electricians had to quickly install wiring while following strict safety regulations to avoid further accidents, he said.

Rescue attempts were also hampered by the sheer volume of water in the mine.

"We underestimated the quantities of water underground," Bernaquez explained. "It's like a small lake."

The workplace health and safety commission and Quebec provincial police are also on hand to investigate the cause of the accident.

Bernaquez said he will leave it up to the safety commission to determine what caused the flooding. "Right now we're concentrating on the rescue," he said.

The mine is about 500 kilometres northwest of Quebec City in the province's Nord-du-Québec region, between Lebel-sur-Quévillon and Chibougamau.

All mining operations have been suspended.