Underground hard-rock mining refers to various underground mining techniques used to excavate "hard" minerals, usually those containing metals, such as ore containing gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc, nickel, tin, and lead. It also involves the same techniques used to excavate ores of gems, such as diamonds and rubies. Soft-rock mining refers to the excavation of softer minerals, such as salt, coal, and oil sands.
A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water, other liquids, or gases. It may also be part of a geotechnical investigation, environmental site assessment, mineral exploration, temperature measurement, as a pilot hole for installing piers or underground utilities, for geothermal installations, or for underground storage of unwanted substances, e.g. in carbon capture and storage.
On 7 November 1963, 11 West German miners were rescued from a collapsed mine after surviving for 14 days, an event that later became known as the Wunder von Lengede.
Lengede is a municipality in the district of Peine, in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 18 kilometers southwest of Braunschweig and 40 kilometers southeast of Hanover. It became known to the world in 1963 because of a mining disaster and the subsequent rescue operation of eleven surviving miners, which became known as the "Wunder von Lengede".
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.
The Quecreek Mine rescue took place in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, when nine miners were trapped underground for over 77 hours, from July 24 to 28, 2002. All nine miners were rescued.
The Beaconsfield gold mine collapsed on 25 April 2006 in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. Of the seventeen people who were in the mine at the time, fourteen escaped immediately following the collapse, one miner was killed and the remaining two were found alive on the sixth day by miners Pat Ball and Steve Saltmarsh. Webb and Russell were rescued on 9 May 2006, two weeks after being trapped nearly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) below the surface.
The 2010 Copiapó mining accident, also known then as the "Chilean mining accident", began on 5 August 2010, with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine, located in the Atacama Desert 45 kilometers (28 mi) north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile. Thirty-three men were trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground and 5 kilometers (3 mi) from the mine's entrance, and were rescued after 69 days.
The San José Mine is a small copper-gold mine located near Copiapó, Atacama Region, Chile. The mine became known internationally for its collapse in 2010, which trapped 33 miners 700 metres (2,300 ft) underground. Its workings are reached by a long sloping roadway with many spiral turns, not by a vertical mineshaft.
The 2010 Copiapó mining accident occurred when the San Jose Mine near to Copiapó, Chile, collapsed, leaving 33 miners of Chilean nationality and one Bolivian miner trapped inside about 700 metres below the surface. The men were trapped in the mine for 69 days before being rescued. The discovery of the miners and their eventual rescue received global attention, with over 2000 members of the media reporting from the San Jose Mine. Global leaders expressed good wishes for the rescue and congratulations upon its successful completion.
The Fénix capsules were three metallic containers that were used for the rescue of 33 trapped miners after the 2010 Copiapó mining accident, and are an enhanced version of the Dahlbusch Bomb. The capsules were constructed by Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada (ASMAR),, who named it Fénix (Phoenix).
Layne Christensen Company is a U.S.-based global water management, construction and drilling company. The company has two divisions, which are Water Resources-Mineral Services and Inline.
Compañía Minera San Esteban Primera is a Chilean mining company, dedicated to the production of copper and gold concentrates. San Esteban's headquarters are located in Providencia, Santiago Metropolitan Region.
Schramm, Inc. is a privately held manufacturer of mobile, top-head hydraulic drilling rigs and related equipment for the global mining, energy, and water well industries. In October 2019, it was acquired by GenNx360 Capital Partners. It is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the United States. Schramm affiliated sales, parts, and service centers are located in more than 16 countries across the globe, with its primary manufacturing facilities located in Pennsylvania and Western Australia.
The 2010 Copiapó mining accident began as a cave-in on 5 August 2010 at the San José copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert near Copiapó, Chile. The accident left 33 men trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) below ground who survived underground for a record 69 days. All 33 men were rescued and brought to the surface on 13 October 2010 over a period of almost 24 hours. After the last trapped miner was winched to the surface, the rescue workers still underground held up a sign before the camera stating "Misión cumplida Chile" to the estimated more than 1 billion people watching the rescue on live television around the world.
The Gleision Colliery mining accident was a mining accident which occurred on 15 September 2011 at the Gleision Colliery, a drift mine at Cilybebyll in Neath Port Talbot, in Wales. The accident occurred while seven miners were working with explosives on a narrow coal seam. Following a blasting operation into a separate disused flooded mine network to increase air-circulation, the tunnel in which the miners were working began to fill with water. Three of the miners escaped, with one being taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, while the others were trapped underground. A search and rescue operation was launched to locate the four remaining miners, but they were found deceased the following day. The incident is the worst mining disaster to occur in Wales for three decades.
The Coalbrook mining disaster is the worst mining accident in the history of South Africa. The disaster occurred in the Coalbrook coal mine of Clydesdale Colliery on 21 January 1960 at around 19:00 when approximately 900 pillars caved in, almost 180 metres (590 ft) underground. The mine is situated in the Northern Free State, 21 kilometres (13 mi) south west of Vereeniging. About 1,000 miners were in the mine at the time and 437 died after being trapped, while the rest escaped through an incline shaft. The miners were suffocated by methane gas and crushed to death by rockfall.
In February 2016, a series of explosions caused the deaths of 36 people, including 31 miners and five rescue workers, at the Severnaya coal mine 10 kilometres north of the city of Vorkuta, Komi Republic, Russia. The explosions were believed to be caused by ignition of leaking methane gas. It is the second deadliest mining disaster of the 2010s behind the Soma mine disaster, and fourth deadliest of the 21st century thus far.
Julen Roselló García, a two-year-old Andalusian boy, fell 109 m (358 ft) into a narrow shaft near Totalán in the province of Málaga, on January 13, 2019. The shaft, illegally excavated, was 110 m (360 ft) deep and had a diameter of 25 cm (9.8 in). To carry out a rescue, it was necessary to drill a parallel conduit of a greater diameter, in an operation in which more than 300 people intervened, plus numerous heavy machinery. The operation received international media coverage. After several setbacks during drilling, on 26 January 2019 at 1:25 am, Roselló's body was found between two layers of earth.
The Qixia gold mine accident was a mining accident that occurred on 10 January 2021 in Qixia, Shandong, China. An access tunnel collapsed due to an explosion at the Hushan (笏山) gold mine, trapping twenty-two miners underground. As of 10 February 2021, eleven miners had been rescued, ten were found dead, and one remains missing.
The original Dahlbusch Bomb on display at the Deutsches Museum, Munich
Closeup view
