Joe Saunders, 44, of Princeton, died at Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tenn., according to Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy.

Saunders and another coal miner were both injured at about 9 p.m., on Jan. 11, when a high-pressure water line valve they were working on blew off and broke into pieces. Abbott said that Saunders was struck in the head by one of the pieces. Abbott said that Saunders was initially transported to Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands, then transported to BRMC.

“We have an investigation on-going at the site with federal inspectors with the Mine Safety and Health Administration,” Abbott said. “In these investigations, it is typical that we close down the area where the accident occurred. It is my understanding that the mine operator — Consol — shut the mine down (Thursday) out of respect for the coal miner who died.

“The initial closure orders had been lifted, but DMME and MSHA have an order in place that restricts the company from moving equipment in the area where the high-pressure pipe was damaged until the company can present an action plan to us that will prevent the same action from happening again,” Abbott said.

MSHA posted on its web site that Saunders was the first miner to be fatally injured on the job this year.

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http://bdtonline.com/local/x1669695673/Mercer-County-coal-miner-succumbs-to-injuries

ZANIS reports that Sinazongwe District Administrative Officer Sokoluku Daka, Sinazongwe Member of Parliament Richwell Siamunene and Nkanddabwe Ward Councilor Partson Mangunje confirmed the accident that happened on Tuesdays at 13:30 hours.

Mr. Daka named the deceased as Gibson Siachivwenya aged 37 and the two injured person as Wispo Mayiya aged 36, and Dought Mudenda aged 23.

Meanwhile, Sinazongwe Member of Parliament Richwell Siamunene has condemned the incident and attributed it to poor safety measures that the company management have been using to conduct their underground mining activities.

Mr. Siamunene called on the Ministry of Mines to give the public the full details of the report pertaining to the operations of the mine where accidents have continued to occur.

And Nkanddabwe Ward Councilor Partson Mangunje said government should look into the safety of the mine to protect the lives of miners.

Mr. Mangunje said despite the Ministry of Mines officers inspecting all shafts at the mine the public has not been informed about the safety of the Chinese owned Collum Coal mine.

He alleged that management has no qualified personnel to handle the explosives used for blasting underground.

And Geshom Muchindu a miner who was underground at the time of the accident disclosed that the accident occurred after blasting underground.

Mr. Muchindu alleged that before dust settled the Chinese supervisor ordered them to go and work in the tunnel where blasting had just been done.

He said a rock fail on three of the miners and killed one on the spot while the others were severely injured.

And one of the injured, Dought Mudenda also said the Chinese Supervisor only named as Ruin forced them to enter the tunnel where blasting was done and allegedly threatened them that he would deduct their working hours if they refused.

However, the Chinese supervisors at Shaft three where the accident happened refused to comment and claimed that they did not understand English.

The body of the deceased miner is at Maamba Hospital Mortuary.

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http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=29520

Initial probe shows that a group of farmers tried to blast their way into an iron ore in Tang county, Hebei province, late Friday night. But the explosives suddenly went off and hit themsevles instead, the government said in a statement.

The injured have been hospitalized. Among them, one remains in critical conditions and was transferred to a provincial-level hospital.

Police said they are still hunting the other suspects and probing the source of the explosives.

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-01/14/content_14447107.htm

The accident occured on Wednesday night, when five workers were lowered into a desolate gold mine belonging to the Rushan Jinhua Miming Company in the city of Rushan, according to a statement from the Rushan municipal government.

The workers drained water out of the shaft for 10 days before entering it to look into the possibility of discovering more gold there.

Three workers were lifted out of the shaft early Thursday morning but died after they were sent to a local hospital.

An initial investigation indicated that all three choked to death. But an autopsy is still needed to determine whether they were poisoned or suffocated from lack of oxygen, sources with the hospital said.

Rescuers are searching for the two workers who remain trapped.

An investigation into the accident is under way.

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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7703368.html

The landslide occurred at about 3:00 a.m. on Thursday morning (19:00 GMT Wednesday) in Pantukan, Compostela Valley province, on Mindanao island.

Civil defence chief Benito Ramos told the BBC it was triggered by “continuous rain” over two days.

A task force is still assessing the actual number of casualties.

Fifteen people have been reported as injured, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in an update on the incident.

“A military unit is in the area but they are basically digging with their hands,” Mr Ramos told the AFP news agency.

He said that a request for heavy equipment from the provincial government and local mining firms had been made to help speed up the rescue.

Small-scale miner Saul Pinggoy said he was woken up by rocks falling onto the roofs of houses.

“It was dark but we decided to move to safer grounds. Hours later, we saw tonnes of soil burying dozens of houses,” Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

Mining instability

According to Mr Ramos, people have refused to leave the area because they were mining for gold.

Unregulated mining activities have made the mountain area unstable and caused a series of accidents. A nearby village was also hit by a landslide last year that left 14 dead.

Government officials had warned people to move to safer areas but many refused to listen.

Military helicopters are now moving rescue teams from Cagayan de Oro – one of the cities badly hit by Typhoon Washi in December – to Pantukan.

At least 1,249 people are known to have died in flash floods caused by Typhoon Washi, which struck Mindanao late last month.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16420800

An accident occurred at the Chervony Partyzan coalmine owned by DTEK Sverdlovantratsyt Ltd. at 2047 on January 3, in which a miner died.

A special commission is working at the enterprise to investigate the causes and circumstances of the accident.

The Chervony Partyzan coalmine is located in the town of Chervonopartyzansk subordinated to Sverdlovsk City Council in Luhansk region.

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http://www.steelguru.com/raw_material_news/Miner_dies_at_coal_mine_in_Luhansk_region_in_Ukraine/244227.html

The miners were buried by a collapsing coal heap while clearing residue coal at a mine in Fuyuan county in the city of Qujing at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday. Nine of the miners died en route to the hospital, according to an official statement.

The two hospitalized miners are in stable condition, the statement said. Authorities are working to investigate the cause of the accident.

The incident marks the second deadly coal mining accident to occur in Qujing over the past two months. On Nov. 10, a gas explosion at a coal mine in Shizong county killed at least 35 miners. Authorities announced the end of rescue efforts after searching for eight missing miners for 10 days.

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http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-01/04/content_24323559.htm

The miners, who were all working at the site without government permission, died after an explosion triggered a collapse at the mine in Baghlan province on Friday night, said the provincial governor’s spokesman Mahmood Haqmal.

“Late on Friday a number of local people were digging at a coal mine in the Chenarak area of Nehrin district when an explosion killed 11 workers,” he said.

Police are at the scene working to recover the bodies.

Conditions in Afghan coal mines can be dangerously primitive, with miners working by hand and little in the way of ventilation, equipment or safety gear.

Afghanistan is believed to have mineral reserves worth as much as $3 trillion which could theoretically generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the troubled country.

But exploitation of these resources faces massive hurdles due to ongoing instability after 30 years of war in the country, woeful infrastructure, and endemic corruption.

Nevertheless, mining lots are being quickly parcelled out among Afghanistan’s resource-hungry neighbours, and according to mining ministry documents the country is planning to sell extraction rights for up to five mines every year until the departure of the last foreign combat troops in 2014.

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http://tribune.com.pk/story/311391/afghan-coal-mine-explosion-kills-eleven-official/

Lanzhou, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) — The death toll has risen to five with one other in critical condition in a coal mine roof collapse in the northwestern province of Gansu that occurred around midnight Sunday, said the local security monitoring department.

The accident happened at 11:56 p.m. while a team of 11 workers were digging at the Jinhe coal mine operated by the Lanzhou Yaojie Coal and Electricity Group. Of the 11, five escaped safe and sound and six others were buried.

The six workers buried at the scene were all pulled out by 2:00 a.m. Monday. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, four were sent to nearby hospitals where three died.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2011-12/19/c_131314617.htm