A methane explosion killed 38 people at a Siberian coal mine
Thursday, just weeks after 110 miners died in a blast at a
neighboring mine operated by the same company.
Rescue workers halted work as no more miners were thought to be
missing at the Yubileynaya pit in the Kemerovo region of western
Siberia, emergency officials said.
Miners' relatives, many of them in tears, scoured a list of the
dead hanging on a wall at the mine's headquarters.
"They will start bringing the bodies to the surface now," said
one woman with tears welling in her eyes. "They say they have
identified everyone."
The blast ripped through the mine at 07:40 Moscow time (03:40
GMT) when 217 people were below ground.
Russia's industrial safety watchdog said its inspectors had
twice applied to have the Yubileynaya mine closed for safety
violations, including in the shaft at the center of the blast, but
they were overruled by local courts.
Miners with coal stained faces smoked nervously as a soft
drizzle fell on the mine, a collection of rusting and poorly
painted Soviet-era buildings surrounded by wooded hills.
Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev declared tomorrow a day of
mourning in the region. President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to
Western Europe, expressed his condolences.
The Yubileynaya mine, which opened in 1966 and employs around
1,000 people, is about 40 km away from the Ulyanovskaya pit where
110 people died in March.
That was Russia's worst mining accident since the fall of the
Soviet Union and triggered a government inquiry that pointed to
poor safety standards.
Both mines are operated by Yuzhkuzbassugol, a company that is 50
percent owned by its management, which has operational control, and
50 percent by steelmaker Evraz Group. Yuzhkuzbassugol declined
immediate comment on Thursday's blast.
Evraz shares were down 2.9 percent in trading on the London
stock exchange. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of
Britain's Chelsea soccer club, has a 41 percent stake in Evraz
through his Millhouse investment vehicle.
Russia's industrial safety agency, RosTekhNadzor, said it had
started an investigation and that Yuzhkuzbassugol could have its
licences to operate Yubileynaya and other mines withdrawn.
"A working commission is at the mine. A decision on the recall
of licences can only be taken in accordance with the results of the
commission's work," agency spokeswoman Svetlana Vinokurova
said.
The pay structure in the Russian coal industry, where miners
earn bonuses based on their output, encourages workers to cut
corners on safety, said a mining trade union official.
The Kemerovo region is the hub of Russia's coal mining industry.
Around 3,000 km east of Moscow, the area is a sprawling network of
soot-stained industrial towns built around mines and metal works
spewing out acrid smoke.
(China Daily via agencies May 25, 2007)
