Mining accident
In order to suppress it, the Japanese operators cut off the air in the ventilation shafts and blocked off the mine so as to deprive the blaze of oxygen.
Most workers were not evacuated before these actions, and they were trapped within the sealed-off area of the mine; they suffocated to death as the fire burned off oxygen and led to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Mount Kembla Mine Disaster of 31 July 1902 was an explosion resulting in the death of 96 miners, including two engaged in rescue work.
Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped immediately following the collapse, one was killed and the remaining two were found alive after five days.
[37] On the morning of August 8, 1956, a fire in the mine Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle caused 262 victims, with only 12 survivors.
[114] A mining cart on an elevator cage hit an oil pipe and electricity lines, with the resulting fire trapping the miners.
Most of the victims were immigrants (136 Italians, 8 Poles, 6 Greeks, 5 Germans, 5 Frenchmen, 3 Hungarians, 1 Englishman, 1 Dutchman, 1 Russian and 1 Ukrainian.
[116] In June 2013, heavy rains provoked the collapse of a gold mine in Ndassima, killing 37 miners and injuring many others.
[119] In June 1945, during a fire, 355 workers died in El Teniente by inhaling carbon monoxide, in what was called the "Tragedia del Humo" (English: The Smoke Tragedy).
Three billion yuan (360 million US dollars) were dedicated for technological renovation on work safety, gas management in particular, at state-owned major coal mines.
[122] In 2006, according to the State Work Safety Supervision Administration, 4,749 Chinese coal miners were killed in thousands of blasts, floods, and other accidents.
[123] The New York Times reported that China's lack of a free press, independent trade unions, citizen watchdog groups and other checks of official power has made cover-ups of mining accidents more possible, even in the Internet age.
As a result, Chinese bureaucrats habitually hide scandals (such as mine disasters, chemical spills, the 2003 SARS epidemic, and tainted milk powder) for fear of being held accountable by the ruling Chinese Communist Party or exposing their own illicit deals with companies involved.
Under China's authoritarian system, superiors reward subordinates for strict compliance with goals established by authorities, like reducing mine disasters.
Indeed, should a mining accident occur, the incentive to hide it is often stronger than the reward for managing it well, as any disaster is almost surely considered a liability.
[129] On 22 February 2023, China recorded four deaths and 49 missing cases due to collapse of a pit coal mine in vast Inner Mongolia region's Alxa League.
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping ordered “all-out efforts in search and rescue” of all people.
The tunnel was supposed to have been closed in March due to dangerously high methane concentrations, but was kept active because of the value of the equipment left behind.
On January 20, 2013, at least four miners died and four more went missing following an accident at a coal mine in the Kuznetsk Basin, in western Siberia.
The majority of the accidents and casualties have happened in the North of Spain and are particularly related to coal mining, mainly due to the collapse of structures and gas explosions.
Though, the worst recorded accident took place in Villanueva del Río, Sevilla, in the Southwest of the country on 28 April 1904, killing 63 people and leaving several more injured.
[144] Five people were killed in July 2013 after the tanzanite quarry they were working in the Mererani mining hills collapsed above their heads.
[146] In March 1992 at the TCC Kozla mine, 263 miners were killed due to a firedamp explosion[147] In 2008 there was another disaster which resulted in one person losing their life.
[161] The worst Scottish mining disaster in the 20th century took place at Auchengeich by Moodiesburn in September 1959, with 47 men killed.
[clarification needed] This was due to the increasing number of mines being sunk to greater depths into gas-containing strata, combined with poor safety and management practices.
[72] The Cross Mountain Mine disaster occurred on December 9, 1911, near the community of Briceville, Tennessee, killing 84 miners.
Where annual mining deaths had numbered more than 1,000 a year during the early part of the 20th century, they decreased to an average of about 500 during the late 1950s, and to 93 during the 1990s.
[168][169] On April 5, 2010, in the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster an underground explosion caused the deaths of 29 miners.
Since the closure of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1996, this research function has been carried on by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
[170] On 21 February 2024, fourteen people were killed and eleven injured following the collapse of an illegal gold mine in Angostura Municipality, Bolívar.
