miners

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Gold Mine Collapse Kills at Least 14

There are fears the death toll could rise in Venezuela tragedy

(Newser) - The collapse of an illegally operated open-pit gold mine in central Venezuela killed at least 14 people and injured several more, state authorities said Wednesday, as some other officials reported an undetermined number of people could be trapped, the AP reports. Bolivar state Gov. Angel Marcano told local reporters that...

Landslide 'Swallows' Miners in Turkey
Landslide 'Swallows'
Gold Miners

Landslide 'Swallows' Gold Miners

Activists have tried to shut down the open pit gold mine before

(Newser) - A landslide hit a gold mine in Turkey on Tuesday, trapping nine miners. Hundreds of rescue workers were searching for the miners, whom the Guardian describes as being "swallowed" by a "cyanide-laced landslide"—the chemical compound is in the ground in the area because it's used...

Coal Mine Blast Kills 41, Union Calls It a 'Massacre'

'A frightful scene' in Amasra, Turkey, after Friday explosion

(Newser) - Funerals for miners killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey began Saturday as officials raised the death toll to at least 41 people. Desperate relatives had waited all night in the cold outside the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise's (TTK) mine in the town of Amasra, in...

Families: Getting to Trapped Miners Could Take 11 Months

10 men have been trapped since Aug. 3

(Newser) - "We're desperate. We don't know what to do. We can't accept this." So said one of the relatives of the 10 miners who have been trapped in a flooded coal mine in Mexico since Aug. 3 upon hearing the news that it could between 6...

There Was No Chance of Survivors—but They Found One

A rescuer managed to survive the methane explosion in Siberian mine

(Newser) - Emergency officials on Thursday said there was no chance of finding any more survivors in the Listvyazhnaya mine, where 52 miners and rescuers were presumed dead in a devastating methane explosion. But on Friday, a miracle: Rescue crews have found a survivor in the Siberian coal mine, a senior regional...

52 Miners and Rescuers Die After Methane Gas Explosion

Siberian officials say there's no chance of finding more survivors

(Newser) - Update: This file has been updated throughout with new information about casualties and details of the explosion. A devastating blast in a Siberian coal mine Thursday left 52 miners and rescuers dead about 820 feet underground, Russian officials said. Hours after a methane gas explosion and fire filled the mine...

Trapped Miners All Freed After 'Physically Taxing' Climb

They used a secondary ladder system to reach the surface

(Newser) - Update: More than three dozen miners who were trapped underground in central Canada on Sunday have all been freed thanks to ladders. The BBC reports a secondary ladder system enabled them to leave the mine, but required that they climb as many as 4,000 feet to the surface. The...

They Found 5 Bodies Wrapped in Plastic, Then 15 More

South African discovery linked to illegal mining mishap

(Newser) - Police have uncovered the burned bodies of 20 men "wrapped in white plastic bags" in a gold mining town in South Africa. Five bodies were discovered Monday near a disused mine shaft in Orkney, North West province, about 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg, per the Sunday Times . Another body...

Trapped Miner Knocked 5 Times. He Heard 20 Knocks Back

Workers at mine in Shandong, China, describe ordeal after explosion trapped them for 2 weeks

(Newser) - The explosion happened in an instant. Wang Kang, one of 22 workers trapped some 2,000 feet underground as debris filled the shaft at the under-construction gold mine in China's Shandong province, was sent flying. "It blasted us really far away, and our safety helmets cracked," the...

After Life Emerges From Chinese Mine, Death

9 more workers found dead weeks after gold mine explosion

(Newser) - Chinese rescuers have found the bodies of nine workers killed in explosions at a gold mine, raising the death toll to 10 , officials said Monday. Eleven others were rescued a day earlier after being trapped underground for two weeks at the mine in Shandong province. One person is still missing....

Trapped Workers Rescued After 2 Weeks in China Gold Mine

11 miners finally saw the light of day Sunday

(Newser) - Eleven workers trapped for two weeks by an explosion inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday. Per the AP , state broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one-by-one in baskets on Sunday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days...

After 11 Days Trapped Underground, a Death

Worker was said to be among a group of 11 stuck in one chamber

(Newser) - One of the dozen workers known to be alive following a Jan. 10 blast in a Chinese gold mine has died, state media reported Thursday. Rescuers have been in contact with 11 workers trapped in one chamber and have delivered food, medicine, and other supplies to them. State media said...

Miners Trapped for 9 Days Request Pickles, Sausages

Workers trapped in China gold mine are ready for more than nutritional liquids

(Newser) - A dozen miners who have been trapped 1,700 feet beneath the surface since Jan. 10 are ready to eat more than nutritional liquids while they wait to be rescued. Using a telephone line that has been newly delivered to the No. 6 chamber of the gold mine, where all...

Miners Trapped for 7 Days Manage to Get Note to Surface

At least 12 of the Chinese miners are alive

(Newser) - A blast in a gold mine in eastern China trapped 22 men below ground on Jan. 10. One week later, 12 of those men managed to get word to the top that they were still alive. The BBC reports that after rescuers determined ropes they had lowered into a narrow...

Video Shows Massive Mine Collapse That Took 120 Lives

'I feel empty in my heart,' says a Myanmar miner

(Newser) - At least 126 people are dead after a terrifying mine collapse buried workers in a wave of rock and mud Thursday in Myanmar, the BBC reports. Officials say rainfall caused a heap of muddy waste to crumble at the jade mine in Hpakant township in Kachin state, setting off the...

This Small-Scale Miner Just Became a Millionaire
With 2 Rocks, Small-Scale
Miner Strikes It Rich
in case you missed it

With 2 Rocks, Small-Scale Miner Strikes It Rich

Saniniu Laizer earns $3.4M from sale of 2 largest known tanzanite gems

(Newser) - A miner in Tanzania has become an overnight millionaire with the discovery and sale of the two largest known tanzanite gemstones ever found. Until last week, the largest known chunk of tanzanite—one of the world's rarest gemstones, believed to be found only in a small northern region of...

At Least 15 Die After Dam Collapse at Gold Mine

A criminal investigation is now underway

(Newser) - At least 15 gold miners in a remote part of Siberia were killed Saturday when a dam collapsed on their encampment, per Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations. Bloomberg and Reuters report that 13 people are still said to be missing after the early-morning calamity in the Krasnoyarsk region, which...

Powder Meant to Save Miners May Be Killing Them Instead

For decades miners were forced to inhale aluminum dust

(Newser) - Between the 1940s and 1980s, miners in Ontario went through a strange ritual at the start of every workday: They'd take off their street clothes, enter a room where their work clothes hung, and as soon as the doors closed, watch the room fill with black powder that they...

New Photos Show Endangered Amazon Tribe

Miners are getting too close to Yanomami, say activists

(Newser) - New photos have emerged of a tribe deep in the Amazon that shuns contact with the modern world, and the photos bring a mix of good and bad news. On the hopeful side, the aerial images show that the small Yanomami community near the border of Brazil and Venezuela seems...

No Miracles: 33 Trapped Miners Found Dead in China

All bodies have been recovered

(Newser) - All 33 coal miners trapped underground by a gas explosion in China have been found dead, reports the AP . Two of their fellow miners made it to safety in the aftermath of Monday's blast, but rescuers working around the clock found no others alive. All bodies have been recovered,...

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