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Tag: mine accident

  • Miner who went missing in flooding found dead in West Virginia after dayslong search, governor says

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    The body of a miner who went missing in a flooded West Virginia coal mine over the weekend has been found, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morissey announced Thursday morning. Morissey identified the man as Steve Lipscomb. 

    Crews discovered the miner’s body just after 7:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, about an hour and a half after the water levels inside Nicholas County’s Rolling Thunder Mine finally receded enough for them to safely enter and explore it, according to the governor.

    “This morning’s news is absolutely heartbreaking,” Morissey and his wife said in a statement. “Denise and I are devastated to learn of the loss of Mr. Lipscomb, and we are praying for his family, friends, and co-workers during this difficult time.”  

    The foreman was working alongside a 17-person crew when he became trapped Saturday afternoon inside the mine. The mining crew struck a pocket of water, causing water to rush in, Nicholas County Commissioner Garret Cole said. Officials said they believe Lipscomb prioritized helping his fellow miners escape the flooding when it started, and eventually became trapped himself. 

    He was believed to be about three-quarters of a mile into the complex, triggering a massive search and rescue effort. All of the other miners were accounted for in the aftermath of the incident, Cole said. 

    Crews worked “around the clock” in 12-hour shifts during the search, the governor said. They pumped enormous amounts of water out of the mining complex and simultaneously drilled down into the tunnels in hopes of reaching Lipscomb, according to officials. By Tuesday, the governor said crews were pumping water out of the complex at a rate of about 6,000 gallons per minute, after officials reported that millions of gallons had already been removed in the wake of the flood.

    Morissey on Thursday praised the crews who he said worked “tirelessly” to search for Lipscomb. 

    “Their commitment and professionalism have been unwavering throughout the operation,” he said.

    Dive teams previously searched for Lipscomb inside the mine multiple times, but the sheer volume of flooding meant investigations on foot were difficult or impossible, and some of the tunnels could not be accessed, Cole said. 

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  • Search continues for coal miner trapped inside flooded mine in West Virginia

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    A massive search operation continued Wednesday in West Virginia, where officials said crews were “working around the clock” and continuing “aggressive” efforts to locate a missing coal miner who became trapped in a flooded coal mine Saturday afternoon.

    “There is nothing that we would spare to try to save the life of the miner,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey told reporters on Monday.

    Morrisey said Tuesday that about 6,000 gallons of water were being pumped out of the mining complex every minute, which he called “a significant increase from earlier efforts as additional pumps became available.”

    A simultaneous drilling operation could allow rescuers to reach the miner a different way, the governor previously said. 

    “While estimates from setup and completion vary for each method, using both approaches together offers the clearest path to success,” he said.

    In an update Tuesday night, Morrisey said the effort was still a rescue mission and rescuers were trying to give the miner a “chance to live,” adding that diving teams and mine safety teams were taking part.

    The miner is the foreman of a 17-person team that struck a pocket of water inside of south-central West Virginia’s Rolling Thunder Mine, causing water to rush into the complex, said Nicholas County Commissioner Garret Cole, citing information from the local emergency management and homeland security agency as well as reporting by CBS News affiliate WOWK. Rolling Thunder Mine is in Nicholas County.

    All of the other miners were accounted for in the aftermath of the flood, Cole said on Facebook late Sunday. Officials believe the foreman helped the team escape the flooding and that he is about three-quarters of a mile into the mine. 

    Morrisey said in a statement that “a section of the mine operation flooded after an old mine wall was compromised.”   

    Multiple local, state and federal agencies were involved in the search, in addition to specialized mining, cave diving and drilling crews attempting to pump water out of the mine, Cole said. By 8:45 p.m. local time Sunday, dive teams had entered the mine for a third time.

    “From reporting from homeland security and media, it is amazing to see the mobilization of these many agencies getting to work so quickly and working around the clock in order to move as quickly, and safely as humanly possible,” he said.

    In an update Monday, Nicholas County Commissioner Cole said the governor said there had been concerns about removing water while dive crews are simultaneously deployed, so crews were trying to remove the water as fast as possible.

    Cole said that coal seams inside the mine have “created air pockets in the ‘peaks’ of the mine,” and that officials hope the miner was able to find them.

    “It was stated to me that the air and water is approximately 52-54 degrees, which means the miner would be less likely to suffer hypothermia, but would more be tasked in trying to become dry and keep in an open air pocket of the mine,” Cole said.

    The commissioner called the emergency response “a learning experience” for him, in part because of the challenges the mine’s terrain presents to search and rescue crews, and the fact that “it takes so much time to safely and properly” reenter it.

    “This is a waiting game, in a most unfortunate way,” Cole said.

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  • Landslide at unauthorized Indonesia goldmine kills at least 23 people, leaves dozens missing

    Landslide at unauthorized Indonesia goldmine kills at least 23 people, leaves dozens missing

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    Jakarta, Indonesia — Rescue workers dug through tons of mud and rubble on Tuesday as they searched for dozens of missing people after a landslide hit an unauthorized gold mining area on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 23 people.

    More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in the remote and hilly village of Bone Bolango when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the provincial Search and Rescue Office.

    Rescuers recovered more bodies on Tuesday in the devastated hamlet where the gold mine is located.

    According to his office, 66 villagers managed to escape from the landslide, 23 were pulled out alive by rescuers, including 18 with injuries, and 23 bodies were recovered, including three women and a 4-year-old boy. About 35 others were missing, it said.

    INDONESIA-LANDSLIDE
    Members of a rescue team carry the body of a person who was killed in a landslide at Tulabolo village in Bone Bolango Regency of Gorontalo Province, Indonesia, July 9, 2024.

    DIDOT/AFP/Getty


    National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said torrential rains that have pounded the mountainous district since Saturday triggered the landslide and broke an embankment, causing floods up to the roofs of houses in five villages in Bone Bolango, which is part of a mountainous district in Gorontalo province. Nearly 300 houses were affected and more than 1,000 people fled for safety.

    Authorities deployed more than 200 rescuers, including police and military personnel, with heavy equipment to search for the dead and missing in a rescue operation that has been hampered by heavy rains, unstable soil, and rugged, forested terrain, said Afifuddin Ilahude, a local rescue official.

    “With many missing and some remote areas still unreachable, the death toll is likely to rise,” Ilahude said, adding that sniffer dogs were being mobilized in the search.

    Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency show rescue personnel using farm tools and their bare hands to pull a mud-caked body from the thick mud and placing it in a black bag to take away for burial.

    INDONESIA-LANDSLIDE
    Members of a rescue team carry a survivor of the landslide at Tulabolo village in Bone Bolango Regency of the Gorontalo Province, July 8, 2024.

    DIDOT/AFP/Getty


    Seasonal monsoon rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains. 

    At least 14 people were killed in May when torrential rain sparked flooding and a landslide in South Sulawesi’s Luwu district. More than 1,000 houses were affected by inundation, with 42 being swept off their foundations.

    In March, torrential rains triggered flash floods and a landslide on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing at least 19 people and leaving 7 others missing, officials said.

    Climatologists say climate change has made the seasonal monsoons across Asia more intense and less predictable. 

    Informal mining operations are also common in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labor in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death. Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners. Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide and workers frequently use little or no protection.

    The country’s last major mining-related accident occurred in April 2022, when a landslide crashed onto an illegal traditional gold mine in North Sumatra’s Mandailing Natal district, killing 12 women who were looking for gold.

    In February 2019, a makeshift wooden structure in an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed due to shifting soil and the large number of mining holes. More than 40 people were buried and died.

    “Improved weather allowed us to recover more bodies,” said Heriyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians.

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  • Venezuela pit mine collapse reportedly leaves dozens of people buried in mud

    Venezuela pit mine collapse reportedly leaves dozens of people buried in mud

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    The wall of an open pit mine in central Venezuela collapsed on Tuesday, reportedly leaving dozens of workers trapped under mud and sparking a frantic rescue effort. Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional cited Edgar Colina Reyes, the government security secretary for Bolivar, the nearest city to the mine in the town of La Paragua, as confirming the accident, but his office had provided no further detail as of Tuesday evening.

    CNN’s Spanish language service quoted local mayor Yorgi Arciniega as saying at least 30 people were killed in the collapse, with about 100 more buried, but there was no immediate confirmation of that toll from national officials.

    The newspaper, and regional outlet Correo del Caroni, said Reyes was heading for the Bulla Loca mine Wednesday morning to assess the situation.

    The newspapers both quoted a local journalist as saying the mine wall that collapsed was approximately 115 feet tall. Photos posted to social media from the scene showed a large, open pit of clay-colored mud, with workers and others racing to help people injured or trapped by the apparent landslide.

    Iron ore, gold, bauxite and other minerals are extracted from mines across the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, including many unsanctioned sites. 

    The last major accident in the region, according to Correo del Caroni, was only a couple months ago in the Gran Sabana district. At least 12 people were reportedly killed in that incident, which came only a month after a previous accident at the same mine that did not result in any deaths, according to the newspaper.

    Local journalist Fritz Sanchez was sharing images and information from the Bulla Loca mine on his social media accounts Tuesday.

    “What we were warned of this past December has happened today,” he said in one post. “They tell me of a collapse in the Bulla Local mine, which has left more than 100 people buried.”

    He indicated the pit may have been an illegal gold mining operation, but there was no information immediately available from Venezuelan authorities to confirm the nature of the site or the number of people trapped or injured.

    Human rights groups have previously voiced serious concern over the number of children working in Venezuela’s open gold mines. 

    TOPSHOT-VENEZUELA-MINING-ENVIRONMENT-CHILDREN
    A pair of boots and other tools used in an open pit mine are seen as Venezuelan children work through the mud in search of gold in El Callao, Bolivar State, Venezuela, in a Sept. 2, 2023.

    YRIS PAUL/AFP/Getty


    Tucker Reals

    Tucker Reals is cbsnews.com’s foreign editor, based in the CBS News London bureau. He has worked for CBS News since 2006, prior to which he worked for The Associated Press in Washington D.C. and London.

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  • China mine collapse leaves at least 2 dead, more than 50 missing in Inner Mongolia

    China mine collapse leaves at least 2 dead, more than 50 missing in Inner Mongolia

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    Beijing — An open pit mine collapsed in China’s northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday, killing at least two people and leaving more than 50 missing, state media reported.
     
    The official Xinhua News Agency said people were buried under debris at the mine in Alxa League. Rescuers brought out three people, two of whom showed no signs of life.
     
    Other state media reports gave the total number of missing at 57 and said numerous vehicles were also buried in the collapse.
     
    Inner Mongolia is a key region for mining coal and other minerals in China, which critics say has ravaged the original landscape of mountains, grassy steppe and deserts.

    Trucks line up to transport coal from a coal mine in a January 14, 2023, file photo taken in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos City, in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

    Wang Zheng/VCG/Getty


    China overwhelmingly relies on coal for power generation, but has strived to reduce the number of deadly mine accidents through a greater emphasis on safety and the closure of smaller operations that lacked necessary equipment.
     
    Most mining deaths are attributed to explosions caused by the buildup of methane and coal dust, or to drownings caused when miners break into shafts that had been abandoned due to flooding.
     
    China has recorded a slew of deadly industrial and construction accidents in recent months as a result of poor safety training and regulation, official corruption and a tendency to cut corners by companies seeking to eek out profits. The economy has slowed, partly as a result of draconian lockdowns and quarantines imposed under the now-abandoned “zero-COVID” policy.


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