On 6 January 2019, it was reported that a mine shaft in the Kohistan District of Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan had collapsed, killing 30 people. [1] The makeshift shaft was reportedly being used to mine gold. [2] Afghan government sources noted that the mining operation was unregulated and illegal, and that most of the miners were local villagers trying to supplement their incomes through rudimentary gold mining. [3] It was reported that at least 7 other people were injured. [4] It was also reported that locals managed to only rescue 13 people while many others including children died. [5]
Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. The ore must be a rock or mineral that contains valuable constituent, can be extracted or mined and sold for profit. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.
Beaconsfield is a former gold mining town near the Tamar River, in the north-east of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 40 kilometres north of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway. It is a rural and residential locality in the local government areas (LGA) of West Tamar and Latrobe in the Launceston and North-west and west LGA regions of Tasmania. The 2016 census has a population of 1298 for the state suburb of Beaconsfield.
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries where safety measures are not practiced as fully. A mining disaster is an incident where there are five or more fatalities.
Galamsey, derived from the phrase "gather them and sell", is local Ghanaian parlance that means illegal small-scale, gold mining in Ghana. Such workers are known as galamseyers or orpailleurs in neighboring Francophone nations. Galamseyers are people who perform illegal gold mining independent of mining companies, digging small working pits, tunnels, and sluices by hand. Galamsey is also referred to as Illegal Artisanal Small Scale mining (ASM).
The Crandall Canyon Mine, formerly Genwal Mine, was an underground bituminous coal mine in northwestern Emery County, Utah.
Mining in Afghanistan was controlled by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, prior to the August 15th takeover by the Taliban. It is headquartered in Kabul with regional offices in other parts of the country. Afghanistan has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, lithium, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals. Gemstones include high-quality emeralds, lapis lazuli, red garnet and ruby. According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion of untapped minerals.
The 2009 Harmony Gold mine deaths occurred in late May and early June 2009 in Free State province, South Africa. At least 82 miners, many from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, died from inhalation of poisonous gasses created by a May 18 fire in the mineshaft.
Impala Platinum Holdings Limited or Implats is a South African holding company that owns several companies which operate mines that produce platinum and platinum group metals, as well as nickel, copper and cobalt. Its most significant mine is the Impala mine in the North West province of South Africa. The company also owns or has interest in the Two Rivers mine and the Marula mine in the South Africa Bushveld Igneous Complex and the Mimosa mine and Zimplats in Zimbabwe, as well as the Impala Refining Services which smelts and refines metals for other companies. In December 2019, Impala Canada was formed, owned by the holding company, out of the acquisition of North American Palladium and its mine in Ontario, Canada.
Fatality statistics in the Western Australian mining industry captures the number of people killed in the industry in the Australian state of Western Australia. During the period 2000-2012 (inclusive), a total of 52 fatalities occurred. In 2006, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia commissioned a taxonomic study to analyse the 306 mining fatalities which occurred between 1970 and 2006. The Department of Mines and Petroleum, later renamed the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, the governing authority for the industry in the state, has published statistics for fatalities in mining dating back to 1943 and intends to publish statistics dating back to 1886, though early records are not expected to be exhaustive.
Events from the year 2019 in Afghanistan.
On 22 April 2019, a landslide triggered the collapse of a jade mine near Maw Wun Kalay, Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar, trapping at least 54 miners. The deaths of four miners were confirmed, along with the later deaths of two rescue workers. The remaining miners were presumed to have died.
On 2 July 2020, a major landslide at the Wai Khar jade mining site in the Hpakant area of Kachin State, Myanmar, killed between 175 and 200 miners in the country's deadliest-ever mining accident. At 06:30 local time (MMT) heavy rains triggered the collapse of a heap of mining waste, which came tumbling down into a lake. This generated a 6.1-meter (20 ft) wave of mud and water that buried those working at the Wai Khar mine. The miners killed or injured by the landslide were independent "jade pickers", who scavenge tailings from larger operators and who live in ramshackle quarters at the base of large mounds of rubble.
The Giroux Consolidated Company experienced two mining accidents at a copper mine in Ely, Nevada, one on December, 4 1907 and another on August 24, 1911.
The Niger gold mine collapse occurred on 7 November 2021 when a manually dug well collapsed at the Garin-Liman mining area of Maradi region, Niger. The day of the mine disaster left 18 people dead on the spot, 7 injured and hospitalised, and dozens of miners buried underground waiting to be rescued. However, equipment limitations have slowed the rescue process. On 9 November 2021, two days after the mine disaster, rescuers found more bodies in the collapsed mine. Eventually, the number of people killed in the accident rose to 32. Since the incident took place on the border between Niger and Nigeria, a large number of Nigerians work in the area. According to reports, among the victims, 13 were Nigerians.
Events in the year 2023 in Afghanistan.