According to Mining News Pro - In the past year, mining sector has faced with different disasters which killed many people and it seems that the mining should have a review in the safety sections.
Dozens killed in explosion at gold mine in southwest Burkina Faso
About 60 people were killed and dozens more wounded on Monday in an explosion at an informal gold mining site in southwest Burkina Faso, state television reported, citing local officials.
The blast, at a makeshift gold-panning site at Gomgombiro in the southwest of the country happened when a stock of dynamite blew up, said local officials and hospital staff.
Images showed a large blast site of felled trees and destroyed tin houses. Bodies lay on the ground, covered in mats.
A hospital source said: "At least five casualties have succumbed to their wounds, bringing the toll to 55," adding that the toll could rise as some of the injured were in a critical condition.
Women and children were among the 60 or so injured in the blast, many of them in a critical condition, the source said.
It was not clear exactly what kind of gold mining went on at the site. Burkina Faso is home to some major gold mines run by international companies, but also to hundreds of smaller, informal sites that operate without oversight or regulation.
Children frequently work in these so-called artisanal mines; accidents are common.
Burkina Faso, one of the world's least developed countries, is under attack from Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State who seek control of mining sites as a means to fund their violent attacks.
Monday's blast was hundreds of miles from where these groups usually operate and there was no sign that Islamist militants were involved.
Disasters kill 15, injure 37 in less than a month
At least 15 people died from disasters while 37 sustained injuries from January 1 to 25 this year, according to a report from the Ministry in Charge of Emergency Management.
Floods, landslides, lightning, mine disasters, fire, rainstorms and windstorms are major disasters.
According to the ministry, lightning claimed seven lives and injured 26 people —the biggest number compared to other disasters — followed by landslides and rainstorms.
The report shows that 130 houses and 132 hectares were damaged by disasters this month, mostly rainstorms and floods.
The most affected districts were Muhanga, Huye, Gisagara, Huye, Nyabihu, Ngorero, Rusizi, and Rubavu.
At least 13 livestock were also killed by disasters which also damaged seven classrooms, one road and one transmission line.
Last year 2,685 hectares of crops, 310 classrooms, two health centres, 44 roads, 32 bridges, four water supply systems, 59 electrical transmission poles, 22 offices, 19 churches, four markets and three factories, 3,977 houses were also damaged by different disasters.
At least 100 people lost lives and 195 injured from January to Mid-October last year.
According to the ministry, anti-erosion measures, planting trees among others should be embraced by farmers.
Other measures include rainwater harvesting, relocation from high-risk zones, wetlands and buffer zones for water bodies, drainage rehabilitation among others.
According to the Rwanda Meteorology Agency, enhanced rainfall was expected over southwestern parts of the country from January to February 2022 compared to the same period last year.
Rainfall ranging between 250-300 millimetres is expected in most parts of Rusizi and Nyamasheke Districts, western parts of Nyaruguru Nyamagabe and Rutsiro Districts, southern parts of Karongi, Ruhango and Gisagara District, Eastern Nyabihu and Rulindo and some pockets in the north of Nyanza and northwest of Huye Districts.
One millimetre equals one litre of water on the soil, the weatherman explains, meaning the more millimetres increase the more it could cause effects.
Rainfall ranging between 200-250 millimetres is expected in eastern parts of Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Karongi, Huye Districts, in southern parts of Muhanga, Nyabihu, Ngororero Rulindo, Burera and Gakenke Districts.
The same rainfall amount is projected in the northern part of Gasabo, northeastern part of Rutsiro and southeastern part of Rwamagana district.
Rainfall ranging between 150-200 millimetres is expected in most parts of Rubavu, Musanze, Kamonyi, Gisagara and Burera, northern parts of Nyabihu, Muhanga, Bugesera, Rulindo, Ngoma and Gicumbi Districts, southern parts of Kirehe, Ngoma and Gicumbi, remaining parts of Rwamagana, Nyanza, Kicukiro, Gasabo and Nyarugenge.
Rainfall ranging between 100-150 millimetres is expected in the other parts of Eastern Province (Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, eastern parts of Rwamagana, Bugesera and Kirehe, south-western parts of Ngoma and Bugesera, and most parts of Kirehe) and eastern parts of Gasabo Districts.
Russia mourns 51 killed in mining disaster, police make arrests
MOSCOW, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Police in Siberia arrested two safety inspectors suspected of criminal negligence on Friday as Russia's coal mining heartland mourned the deaths of 51 people in one of its worst mine disasters since Soviet times.
Regional governor Sergei Tsivilyov said a methane explosion was the likely cause of Thursday's accident at the mine near the town of Belovo. The dead included five rescuers sent to bring out dozens of men stuck deep underground, he said. read more
"There was an explosion at this mine 18 years ago and 13 people died. The whole village went mad. Just imagine how they're going to bury 46 (miners)," said Inna Piyalkina, whose 55-year-old husband was among the dead.
The Investigative Committee, a body that probes serious crimes, said they would charge and remand in custody two safety inspectors who issued a certificate for the mine this month but had not actually checked the facility.
Its move followed the arrest late on Thursday of three managers of the Listvyazhnaya mine, including its director, on suspicion of flouting safety standards. read more
The local prosecutor's office said on Friday it was carrying out safety checks at other mines across the region and had already opened 28 cases into violations found at six companies. It did not name them.
'SENSORS WERE BEEPING'
The mine, located some 3,500 km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow in the Kemerovo region, is owned by SDS-Ugol, a company that produces 27 million tonnes of coal annually and is part of the privately-owned Siberian Business Union. The SBU did not reply to a request for comment.
Piyalkina said her husband, who had worked in the mine for 33 years, had recently complained of safety problems.
"Methane was over the limit. My husband came home from work every day and said it wouldn't end well. It was so over the limit that all the sensors were beeping," she told reporters after visiting the facility on Friday.
She said there had been a fire in a part of the mine on the night of Nov. 14-15.
"No measures were taken. Here's the result. Just 10 days have gone by and they're all lying in there," she said.
In a rare snippet of good news, one of the rescuers who had been assumed dead was suddenly found alive on Friday and rushed to hospital where he was put in intensive care, the Emergency Services said. read more
Emergency workers, who had been forced to halt their rescue efforts on Thursday due to the risk of an explosion, brought the bodies of three miners and three rescuers to the surface on Friday, the regional governor said.
Four other people, including a second rescue worker, were in intensive care, TASS news agency cited doctors as saying. A total of 50 people were in hospital, it said.
The accident was Russia's worst since 2010 when explosions killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same region.
In 2007, the region, known informally as Kuzbass, was the site of the worst mining accident since the collapse of the Soviet Union when an explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine claimed the lives of more than 100 people.