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16 June, 2008
The aftermath of the early morning, 8 June, coal mine explosion inside the Karl Marx Mine near Yenakiyevo in the Ukraine is remarkable in that only 12 miners perished. The blast was so powerful that it ripped cable couplings on an elevator shaft to metal shreds, causing sparks, thus enhancing the explosion.
The elevator, with nine miners aboard, plummeted down a mine shaft. Those nine and another three miners, who were buried by debris, died. Twenty-four miners were rescued some 36 hours after the explosion. The explosion was so potent that it injured five workers on the surface.
The mine, owned by the state company Ordzhonikidzevuhillia, is a small producer of anthracite coal, with production of only 250 tonnes per day. It is also a high-cost operation. Had the mine been a major producer, meaning hundreds more miners would have been at work, the death toll would have been much higher.
The government’s State Committee of Health and Safety at Work, as well as a Mining Oversight Committee, has put the blame on management. They said mining at this colliery, 40 kilometres east of the regional capital of Donetsk, had been banned two days earlier due to high methane levels.
In fact, according to ICEM affiliate Coal Mining Workers’ Union of Ukraine (PRUPU), production had officially stopped, but a skip hoist was in use at the time of the explosion, lifting some 700 tonnes of coal to the surface. The coal had already been mined and was in storage at one of the colliery’s levels.
Regarding overall safety, the Karl Marx Mine should not have been in operation. But it should be noted that there are few employment opportunities in this area of the central Donbass region, and coal mining provides livelihoods for thousands of families. The 8 June explosion at Yenakiyevo cries out for state-of-the-art mining technology, enhanced safety methods, as well as other, sustainable forms of employment for the region’s citizens.
Early Saturday, 14 June, in the community of Gorlovka, Ukraine, just 20 kilometres from Yenakiyevo, 15 miners were hospitalized with sulfur poisoning. The accident occurred when a sulfuric acid cloud was released from a chemical operation adjacent to a coal mine. The factory is owned by JSC Concern Stirol, a make of chemicals and fertilizers. The incident happened when the chemicals producer was re-start of a sulfuric acid plant.