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2 July, 2007
A third major methane gas explosion in a Russian coal mine has left 10 miners dead. This latest mine blast occurred on 25 June at the Komsomolskaya mine in Vorkuta, in the Russian region of Komi.
Reports cite a popping noise, resulting in a power failure immediate before the explosion occurred. The miners who died were working in two shafts at depths of 900 metres for the company IAO Vorkutaugol. A total of 150 miners were brought from shafts following the blast, while four others were hospitalised with serious injuries.
The Vorkuta mining deaths come after a pair of earlier methane explosions in the Kemerovo Region claimed a total of 149 deaths. On 24 May, 39 miners died at the Yubileynaya mine. And earlier, on 19 March, the worst Russian mine disaster in decades occurred at the Ulyanovskaya mine, with 110 miners perishing. Both of these mines are operated by OAO Yuzhkuzbassugol, owned by Russia’s second largest steel and metals company, Evraz Group.
These latest mining deaths come just two weeks after Russia’s environmental, technological, and nuclear safety agency, Rostekhnadzor, had asked the government to draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations, giving it a definite mandate to close unsafe mines. The workers’ safety watchdog has temporarily closed mines, but companies have used Russia’s courts to immediately reopen such enterprises.
Rostekhnadzor, in a press release on the eve of OAO Vorkutaugol’s mine disaster, said it has begun drafting a methane safety programme for Russian coal mines for the period 2007 to 2010. The agency said 80% of all coal mines contain high methane levels.