A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although hard rock mining is not immune from accidents. 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.
Petroșani is a city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 34,331 (2011). The city has been associated with mining since the 19th century.
Lupeni is a mining city in the Jiu Valley in Hunedoara County, Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. It is one of the oldest and largest cities in the Jiu Valley. It is located on the banks of the West Jiu river within the Jiu Valley, at a height varying between 630 metres (2,070 ft) and 760 metres (2,490 ft). The distance from Lupeni to Petrosani is 18 kilometres (11 mi) (DN66A), and to Deva is 114 kilometres (71 mi).
The Sago Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion on January 2, 2006, at the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia, United States, near the Upshur County seat of Buckhannon. The blast and collapse trapped 13 miners for nearly two days; only one survived. It was the worst mining disaster in the United States since the Jim Walter Resources Mine disaster in Alabama on September 23, 2001, and the worst disaster in West Virginia since the 1968 Farmington Mine disaster. It was exceeded four years later by the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, also a coal mine explosion in West Virginia, which killed 29 miners in April 2010.
The June 1990 Mineriad was the suppression of an anti-National Salvation Front (FSN) sit-in protests in Bucharest, Romania by the physical intervention of groups of industrial workers as well as coal miners from the Jiu Valley, brought to Bucharest by the government to counter the rising violence of the protesters. This event occurred several weeks after the FSN achieved a landslide victory in the May 1990 general election, the first elections after the fall of the Ceauşescu regime. Many of the miners, factory workers, and other anti-protester groups, fought with the protesters and bystanders. The violence resulted in some deaths and many injuries on both sides of the confrontations. Official figures listed seven fatalities and hundreds of injured, although media estimates of the number killed and injured varied widely and were often much higher.
The Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 was the largest protest movement against the Communist regime in Romania before its final days, ushering in a period of intermittent labour unrest that would last a dozen years, and the most important challenge posed by a group of workers to the regime since the protests triggered by the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It took place August 1–3, 1977 and was centred in the mining town of Lupeni, in Transylvania's Jiu Valley.
Lupeni Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Lupeni, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Lupeni mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 65 million tonnes of coal.
The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly 1,000 feet (300 m) underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed. The coal dust explosion occurred at 3:27 pm. The accident was the worst in the United States since 1970, when 38 miners were killed at Finley Coal Company's No. 15 and 16 mines in Hyden, Kentucky. A state funded independent investigation would later find Massey Energy directly responsible for the blast.
Lonea Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Petrila, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Lonea mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 22.7 million tonnes of coal.
Paroșeni Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Vulcan, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Paroșeni mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 23.7 million tonnes of coal.
Livezeni Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Petroşani, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Livezeni mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 22.6 million tonnes of coal.
Petrila Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Petrila, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Petrila mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 16.5 million tonnes of coal.
Bărbăteni Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Lupeni, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Bărbăteni mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 27.9 million tonnes of coal.
Aninoasa Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Aninoasa in the south-western part of the country in Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Aninoasa mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 70.7 million tonnes of coal and annual production amounts to 0.4 million tonnes.
On 13 May 2014, an explosion at Eynez coal mine in Soma, Manisa, Turkey, caused an underground mine fire, which burned until 15 May. In total, 301 people were killed in what was the worst mine disaster in Turkey's history. The mine, operated by coal producer Soma Kömür İşletmeleri A.Ş., suffered an explosion, the cause of which is still under investigation. The fire occurred at the mine's shift change, and 787 workers were underground at the time of the explosion. After the final bodies were pulled from the mine on May 17, 2014, four days after the fire, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız confirmed the number of dead was 301. Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) announced the names of 301 workers who died in the mine disaster and 486 people who survived but some politicians claimed that the number of dead is more than 340.
Events from the year 2008 in Romania.
The 1922 Lupeni mine disaster was a coal mining explosion at the Lupeni Coal Mine district in the Jiu Valley of Greater Romania, on April 30, 1922. A total of 82 miners were killed.
