Miner disasters

In the warm afterglow of the Beaconsfield gold mine near disaster, in which one miner was crushed to death, it is worth reflecting on a couple of items.

Back from the deep

Thanks to the fast-growing economies of China and India, a commodity markets banker based in Asia explains, the price of gold is at a 25-year high, almost doubling in the past two years to the current price of $680 (£365) per ounce. But is it worth all the lives lost in extracting it? "Gold mining is a completely pointless exercise," he says. "People dig it, refine it and bury it in another hole in the ground. It is never consumed, you can never destroy it - all the gold that's ever been mined still exists. And it's very energy-intensive - the yield is seven grammes per tonne. A lot of effort goes into it just so that it can be buried again."

Mining remains a hazardous job. According to Tony Maher, the national president of the miners' union, there have been 3,000 men killed in mining accidents in Australia's history....

China says coal mining deaths up 21 pct

The number of deaths in China's accident-plagued coal mines surged by nearly 21 percent in the first three months of this year [2005] despite a national safety crackdown, the country's top industrial safety official said Tuesday.

Fires, cave-ins and other accidents killed 1,113 miners from January to March, up 20.8 percent over the same period in 2004, said Li Yizhong, the minister in charge of the State Administration for Work Safety.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with thousands of deaths a year blamed on lack of required equipment or indifference to safety rules. Communist leaders have promised repeatedly to tighten standards but accidents still kill an average of 16 miners a day.

Efforts to shut down dangerous mines have been complicated by the country's soaring demands for power to drive its booming economy.

The government has ordered emergency shipments of coal amid widespread blackouts, prompting mines to push their facilities beyond safe limits. Many smaller, unlicensed mines have reopened in response to the surging demand.

Probe begins in Gansu coal mine gas poisoning, By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-09 06:04

Carbon monoxide poisoning is the cause of nine coal miners' deaths on Sunday in Gansu Province, officials have said.

The mine, which is State-owned, is licensed to produce 30,000 tons of coal a year. All the appropriate safety documents had been obtained so that the mine could operate legally, Chen said.

Work-related accidents fall under the jurisdiction of the State Administration of Work Safety, which announced yesterday that 650 people were killed in 40 "very serious" and "extremely serious" accidents during the first four months this year.

The death toll in many high-risk industries declined, notably the coal mining industry. From January to April, 203 people died in 11 mining accidents.

The number of fatalities is about 64 per cent lower than last year, and the 11 accidents are a decline of 35 per cent.

U.S. coal mining deaths: 1990-2005

Here are the number of coal mining deaths in the United States, from 1990 through 2005, and the fatality rate (deaths per 200,000 work hours).

1980: 133 deaths, .06 per 200,000 hours.

1990: 66 deaths, .04 per 200,000 hours.
1991: 61 deaths, .04.
1992: 55 deaths, .04.
1993: 47 deaths, .04.
1994: 45 deaths, .04.
1995: 47 deaths, .04.
1996: 39 deaths, .03.
1997: 30 deaths, .03.
1998: 29 deaths, .03.
1999: 35 deaths, .03.
2000: 38 deaths, .04.
2001: 42 deaths, .04.
2002: 27 deaths, .03.
2003: 30 deaths, .03.
2004: 28 deaths, .03.
2005: 22 deaths, rate not yet available.

For some comparison, check out China’s coal-mining death toll over the last several years:

2000: 5,300 deaths.
2001: 5,670 deaths.
2002: 5,791 deaths.
2003: 7,200 deaths.
2004: 6,027 deaths.

Data on Chinese coal miners’ deaths per 200,000 hours of work aren’t available, but statistics on deaths per 1 million tons of coal indicate China’s miners are dying at a rate about 117 times America’s fatality rate.

12 April 2004 01:48
At least 40 die in Russian mining disaster

Russia suffered its worst mining disaster since 1997 when a methane blast tore through one of the country's newest and most efficient coal mines on Saturday, leaving at least 40 people dead.

Ukraine is to observe two days of official mourning on Monday and Tuesday in memory of eighty coal miners who died in a mine explosion.

2005 sees fewer mining deaths
11/01/2006 17:21 PM

Johannesburg - South Africa's mining industry reported 202 fatalities during 2005, down from 246 deaths in 2004, the department of minerals and energy said in its monthly safety report released on Wednesday.

Ten years ago in 1995, 553 people in the mining industry died.

RIP