[3] The main disasters in Risca attracted nationwide press coverage and resulted in official inquiries to determine the causes of the accidents.
The Black Vein Colliery was opened in the early 1840s by John Russell of the Risca Iron and Coal Company,[1] employing more than 350.
A coroner's inquest subsequently found that one of the men who initially survived was responsible for the explosion due to the use of a naked candle rather than a safety lamp[13] and that a ventilation door had been left open.
[11] By 1872 the colliery had changed ownership several times and a new pit, with much deeper shafts,[3] was sunk to extract more of the coal in the Black Vein between the (more modern) villages of Crosskeys and Wattsville.
A change to three shifts and extraction methods had worried the miners, who believed that the face moved forwards too fast and that gas was not being dispersed sufficiently.