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Mining Tragedies

Turkey’s Preventable Tragedy – by Ozgur Ozelmay (New York Times – May 20, 2014)

http://www.nytimes.com/

Ozgur Ozel is a Republican People’s Party deputy representing the Soma-Manisa district in Turkey’s Parliament. This essay was translated by Zeynep Tufekci from the Turkish.

MANISA, Turkey — On the morning of May 13, Turkey finally woke up from its deep slumber on workplace safety — but at the cost of 301 lives. The subterranean fire last week at the Soma coal mine in western Turkey was the worst mining disaster in the country’s history. Hundreds of hardworking men in the district I represent are dead. And sadly, their deaths could have been prevented.

As early as last September, I had petitioned the Turkish Parliament to create a commission of inquiry, which is one way that the legislature can use its powers to oversee industry in Turkey. Ever since the Soma mine was privatized in 2005, the price of extracting coal has gone down dramatically — and so have safety conditions for workers.

My proposal merely called for research on previous mining accidents in Soma, inspections of the mine, and finding solutions. Along with other members of Parliament, I also urged Turkey to ratify the International Labor Organization’s convention on mine safety; if Turkey had signed the I.L.O. convention, there would have been mandatory alternative exits from the mine that could have saved lives.

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Mine Disaster Casts Harsh Light on Turkey’s Premier – by TIM ARANGO, KAREEM FAHIM and SEBNEM ARSUMAY (New York Times – May 16, 2014)

http://www.nytimes.com/

SOMA, Turkey — There was no one to treat in the first aid tents near the entrance to the mine, where nearby an old woman wailed, “Our children are burning!” A man and his wife, dazed from a lack of sleep, walked the muddy grounds, looking for information that no one in the government could provide.

“This is how they steal people’s lives,” said the grieving father, Bayram Uckun, who like many here has become increasingly angry with the government for its response to the disaster. “This government is taking our country back 90 years.”

The body of Mr. Uckun’s son, and those of at least 17 other men, was almost certainly still trapped underground, after the deadliest industrial accident in Turkey’s modern history. But with the death toll from Tuesday’s accident expected to rise above 300, this disaster has quickly metastasized from a local tragedy into a new political crisis for the Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Relatives wept during a funeral service on Thursday in Soma, Turkey. Officials have confirmed 284 deaths in the mining accident, Turkey’s worst.Public Discontent Rises as Families Gather to Bury Victims of Turkish Mine DisasterMAY 15, 2014
Labor unions staged a one-day national strike on Friday as security forces shot tear gas and water cannons at protesters in Soma, in the capital, Ankara, and in Istanbul.

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Turkey in mourning (Northern Miner Editorial – May 14, 2014)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Outside of the all-too regular horrors of China’s underground mines, the coal mine explosion on May 13 at Soma, 250 km south of Istanbul in western Turkey, is the worst mine disaster in recent memory.

The death toll stood at 274 and counting at press time, with some 450 miners having been rescued and many dozens still missing. The workings — which extend at least 420 metres — were still being vented of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and fires were still burning. The Turkish government has declared three days of national mourning.

The Soma disaster has beaten Turkey’s previous worst mining disaster: a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.

Initial reports out of Soma have authorities saying that the disaster followed an explosion and fire caused by a faulty power distribution unit, and the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people were inside the coal mine at the time of the explosion, and many were injured. A shift change was occurring at the time, so a maximum number of workers were underground.

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Regulators Couldn’t Close U.S. Mine Despite Poor Safety Record – by HOWARD BERKES & ANNA BOIKO-WEYRAUCH (Texas Public Radio – May 14, 2014)

http://tpr.org/

The West Virginia mine where two workers were fatally injured on Monday consistently violated federal mine safety laws, but federal regulators say they were unable to shut it down completely.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration confirmed that two workers were killed on May 12 when coal and rocks burst from mine walls at Patriot Coal’s Brody No. 1 mine in Boone County, W.Va.

MSHA says one victim was operating a mining machine and the other was drilling bolts into the roof of the mine, a process that prevents rockfalls. But MSHA and Patriot both say the miners were engaged in “retreat mining” at the time, a dangerous practice that involves cutting the coal pillars that hold up the mine roof, yielding the last loads of coal after a coal seam has been fully mined.

Federal data reviewed and analyzed by NPR show serious safety problems at the mine going back to 2007. The threat to miners was so serious and persistent that MSHA responded with one of its toughest enforcement actions. In October of last year, the Brody mine was designated a “pattern violator” and received extra regulatory scrutiny.

Patriot objected, blaming the troubled safety record and pattern of violations on a previous owner. NPR’s review of data from MSHA reveals serious safety issues under Patriot management that put miners at risk of injury or death.

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UPDATE 2-Mass funerals, mounting anger as Turkey mourns mine workers – by Ece Toksabay (Reuters India – May 15, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

SOMA, Turkey, May 15 (Reuters) – Loudspeakers broadcast the names of the dead and excavators dug mass graves in this close-knit Turkish mining town on Thursday, while protesters gathered in major cities as grief turned to anger following the country’s deadliest industrial disaster.

Rescuers were still trying to reach parts of the coal mine in Soma, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Istanbul, almost 48 hours after fire knocked out power and shut down the ventilation shafts and elevators, trapping hundreds underground.

At least 282 people have been confirmed dead, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning, and hopes are fading of pulling out any more alive of the 100 or so still thought to be inside.

Anger has swept a country that has boasted a decade of rapid economic growth under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government but which still suffers from one of the world’s worst workplace safety standards.

Furious residents heckled Erdogan and jostled his entourage on Wednesday as he toured the town, angry at what they see as the government’s cosiness with mining tycoons, its failure to ensure safety and a lack of information on the rescue effort.

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Engineers hurl scandalous accusations after Turkish mine fire kills hundreds – by Ben Brumfield, Gul Tuysuz and Diana Magnay (CNN.com – May 15, 2014)

 http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/

Soma, Turkey (CNN) — Turkey’s President spoke words of comfort to loved-ones of the nearly 300 miners who have died in a mine fire, a day after the Prime Minister was blasted over comments seen as insensitive.

The deadly mine fire in Turkey is a “sorrow for the whole Turkish nation,” President Abdullah Gul told reporters Thursday. He offered his condolences to the victims’ families.

Onlookers listened silently until a man interrupted Gul with shouts: “Please, president! Help us, please!” An investigation into the deadly Turkey mine disaster has begun, Gul said. “I’m sure this will shed light” on what regulations are needed. “Whatever is necessary will be done,” he said.

He commended mining as a precious profession. “There’s no doubt that mining and working … to earn your bread underground perhaps is the most sacred” of undertakings, he told reporters. Gul had entered the mine site with an entourage of many dozens of people — mostly men in dark suits — walking through a crowd of rescue workers who were standing behind loosely assembled police barricades.

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Hopes fade for survivors after Turkish mine fire kills At least 245 – by Ece Toksabay (Reuters U.K. – May 14, 2014)

http://uk.reuters.com/

SOMA, Turkey – (Reuters) – Hopes faded of finding more survivors in a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday, where 245 workers were confirmed killed and around 120 still feared to be trapped in what is likely to prove the nation’s worst ever industrial disaster.

Anger over the deadly fire at the mine about 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Istanbul echoed across a country that has seen a decade of rapid economic growth but still suffers from one of the world’s worst workplace safety records. Opponents blamed Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government for privatising the country’s mines and ignoring repeated warnings about their safety.

“We as a nation of 77 million are experiencing a very great pain,” Erdogan told a news conference after visiting the site. But he appeared to turn defensive when asked whether sufficient precautions had been in place at the mine. “Explosions like this in these mines happen all the time. It’s not like these don’t happen elsewhere in the world,” he said, reeling off a list of global mining accidents since 1862.

Fire knocked out power and shut down ventilation shafts and elevators shortly after 3 pm (1 p.m.BST) on Tuesday. Emergency workers pumped oxygen into the mine to try to keep those trapped alive during a rescue effort that lasted through the night.

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Turkish coal mine disaster cranks up pressure on miners, utilities – by Henning Gloystein (Reuters India – May 14, 2014)

http://in.reuters.com/

LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) – A coal mine explosion and fire that has killed over 200 people in Turkey coincides with increased pressure on miners and utilities to drastically improve safety and environmental standards for miners risking their lives.

Coal mining is responsible for more fatalities than the production of any other energy source due to poor working conditions in producing countries such as China, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia and Colombia. It is also a major world polluter.

The disaster in western Turkey, likely to be the country’s deadliest, is still unfolding with hundreds believed to be trapped underground. It’s also the worst in a series of incidents in a sector that has seen 30,000 die since 1970.

A coal mine collapse in the U.S. state of West Virginia killed two workers this week at a facility that had “chronic compliance issues” and received numerous citations from inspectors last year.

Last month, two more workers were killed in Australia after a supporting wall in a coal mine about 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of Sydney gave way, trapping the two men about 500 metres (1,640 feet) below the surface.

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Over 200 killed, hundreds trapped after deadly coal mine explosion in Turkey – by Desmond Butler and Suzan Fraser (Globe and Mail May 14, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

SOMA, Turkey — The Associated Press – Rescuers desperately raced against time to reach more than 200 miners trapped underground Wednesday after an explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least 201 workers, authorities said, in one of the worst mining disasters in Turkish history.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people were inside the coal mine in Soma, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Istanbul, at the time of the explosion and 363 of them had been rescued so far.

“Regarding the rescue operation, I can say that our hopes are diminishing,” Yildiz said. Turkey’s worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.

As bodies were brought out on stretchers, rescue workers pulled blankets back from the faces of the dead to give jostling crowds of anxious family members a chance to identify victims. One elderly man wearing a prayer cap wailed after he recognized one of the dead, and police restrained him from climbing into an ambulance with the body.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared three days of national mourning, ordering flags to be lowered to half-staff. Erdogan postponed a one-day visit to Albania and planned to visit Soma instead.

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Mining deaths trigger demands for action on workplace safety (Daily Commercial News – May 13, 2014)

http://dcnonl.com/

SUDBURY, ONTARIO – Labour leaders are demanding the Ontario government take more action to improve workplace safety, after two men were killed earlier this week at a nickel and copper mine in the northern part of the province.

“How many times do we have to repeat ourselves,” said Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL).
“Over and over again, tragedy after tragedy, we are telling the government that workplaces are not as safe as they should be and they must act. Instead, we face complacence.”

First Nickel Inc. (FNI) reported on May 6 that two drillers were killed in an incident while working underground at the Lockerby Mine near Sudbury.

Marc Methe and Norm Bissaillon, who were 34 and 49 years old respectively, were employed by Taurus Drilling Services.
Bissaillon was an experienced underground miner with more than 20 years of experience and Methe had been employed by Taurus for about 4 years.

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Updated: Lockerby miners being recalled – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 9, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

First Nickel Inc. was to begin a staged recall of its workforce Thursday after the Ministry of Labour lifted the suspension of its underground operations in all areas of Lockerby Mine, except the area where two men were killed early Tuesday.

Drillers Norm Bisaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, employees of Taurus Drilling Services, were killed by a fall of material, believed to have been preceded by seismic activity.

The area where the men were killed from 3 to 3:30 a.m., at the 6,500-foot level, remains under restricted access while the ministry investigates. The ministry is being assisted in that investigation by the company and by Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, which represents production and maintenance workers at Lockerby Mine, although Methe and Bisaillon did not belong to the union.

Before First Nickel began recalling its 120 production and maintenance workers, employees were reintegrated into the worksite through a series of sessions designed to provide a safety reorientation. The company said the reorientation would reconfirm First Nickel’s commitment to providing a safe working environment for employees and contractors.

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Mine committee presses on, mindful of Sudbury deaths – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 9, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The deaths of two more men in a Sudbury-area mine can’t halt the work of those involved in Ontario’s Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review, says its chair.

What it can and will do is strengthen the resolve of those conducting it to continue and produce what George Gritziotis calls “deliverables” so the review can have an impact on the mining industry as soon as possible.

Gritziotis, who is Ontario’s chief prevention officer, was saddened, as so many Sudburians were this week, by news that two men were killed at First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine.

Marc Methe, 34, and Norm Bisaillon, 49, died early Monday morning after being struck by a fall of material, preceded by a seismic event, believed to have been a factor in the accident.

The men were experienced drillers with Taurus Drilling Services. Tragedies such as this one, and the death exactly one month earlier of millwright Paul Rochette, 36, and critical injury of a 28-year-old millwright at Vale’s Copper Cliff Smelter Complex, hit the community hard, said Gritziotis.

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Mourn for those dying to live [Sudbury mining deaths] – by Dave Dale (North Bay Nugget – May 7, 2014)

http://www.nugget.ca/

Two more miners died in the Sudbury area this week, raising the death toll to six in the past three years. The latest incident happened at First Nickel’s Lockerby mine Tuesday.

Norm Bissaillon, 49, and Marc Methe, 34, contract drillers with Taurus Drilling Services, were killed in a fall of material, preceded by seismic activity, which is believed to have been a factor in the accident.

Nipissing is a close Nickel Belt neighbour and many North Bay and area residents are linked in one way or another to families dependent on their children or parents toiling underground there and north of here.

Whether you knew them or not, it’s important to pause and reflect on how people are dying to make a living. With so many other career opportunities evaporating in this province, it might be your own child, parent or cousin next.

It was less than two weeks ago on April 28 that the National Day of Mourning paid tribute to all those who lost their lives or were injured on the job.

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Ministry issues orders related to Lockerby mining deaths [Sudbury] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 8, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The Ministry of Labour has issued one order and one requirement to First Nickel Inc., in its investigation into the deaths Tuesday of two drillers at Lockerby Mine.

Marc Methe, 34, and Norm Bisaillon, 49, were killed by a fall of material, that was preceded by seismic activity believed to have been a factor in the accident. The men both worked for Taurus Drilling Services.

The ministry, which is leading the investigation into the men’s deaths, has issued a requirement for documentation including training records, shift lineup, level plans, shifter log books, seismicity records and ground control inspection reports. The compliance date for those materials is Friday.

The ministry has also ordered that the accident scene remain barricaded until released by an inspector. The orders are a normal part of a ministry investigation into a mining fatality. Meanwhile, United Steelworkers has also issued a statement about the deaths of the two contractors, who were not members of a union.

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PoV: Words no longer suffice for [Sudbury mining] tragedy – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – May 7, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

We are blessed as a community to live in a mining town, with good jobs and a good lifestyle. But it is a hard truth that we must also live with tragedy. We are horrified when it happens in our mines, but it is equally tragic that we are not shocked.

We have lived with the dangers present in underground’s unforgiving environment for as long as our community has existed.

And so now we mourn two more. Marc Methe, 34, and Norm Bissaillon, 49, died at First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine Tuesday morning after a fall of ground. Methe is said to have become an uncle recently, and devoted to his trade. Bissaillon, an underground miner with two decades of experience, was dedicated to his family.

They are the fifth and sixth employees of mining companies in Sudbury to die on the job in the last three years. And so again, we hear words of sympathy and condolence from industry officials and politicians. They are words we must find a way to stop the need for saying.

We said them for millwright Paul Rochette, 36, who died April 6 when a piece of equipment malfunctioned at the casting and crushing plant in Vale’s smelter. Another miner was badly injured in the incident.

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