Four miners dead, six trapped after tremor in Polish coal mine
Reuters | April 24, 2022 | 

Free empty mine. (Reference image from RawPixel, CC0).

Four miners were killed after a tremor at a coal mine in southern Poland on Saturday and rescuers were still trying to reach six others trapped underground, the mine’s owner JSW said.


“The doctor confirmed the death of two more miners… The tragic balance sheet of yesterday’s high-energy tremor at the mine increased to four people,” JSW said in a statement on Sunday.

The company had earlier announced the deaths of two of the miners.

The tremor shook JSW’s Borynia-Zofiowka mine on Saturday morning. There were 52 workers in the area, 42 got out on their own, and 10 remained underground.

After many hours, rescuers reached four miners late on Saturday but they did not show any signs of life, JSW said earlier.

“The conditions allow us to continue the search for our six colleagues,” JSW Chief Executive Tomasz Cudny told reporters on Sunday.

This is the second accident in a week at a coal mine owned by JSW. Last Wednesday, five people died and seven were trapped in the Pniowek coal mine in southern Poland after an explosion.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who visited the Borynia-Zofiowka mine on Saturday, said that all procedures in both mines will be “thoroughly checked” by a special commission.

(By Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Kim Coghill and Susan Fenton)

Ten missing as second JSW-run coal mine in Poland hit by tremor
Bloomberg News | April 23, 2022 |

Hardhat in a mine. (Image from RawPixel, CC0).

Ten people are missing after an underground tremor and methane gas leak at the Borynia-Zofiowka mine operated by JSW SA, Europe’s biggest coking coal producer.


JSW Chief Executive Officer Tomasz Cudny said in a statement that a rescue operation was underway.

The emergency follows another incident earlier this week at the Pniowek mine, also run by JSW, that left five miners dead and seven missing following repeated methane explosions. The latest accident took place at 3:40 a.m. on Saturday about 900 meters (2,952 feet) underground, with the tremor trapping 10 of the 52 workers in the area.

“The first rescue group reached the excavation where the shock occurred,” Cudny said. The operation is “difficult” because of the atmospheric conditions following the gas leak although there are “no signs indicating ignition or fire.”

JSW shares dropped 14% last week, their worst performance since October 2020.

(By Wojciech Moskwa)

Three miners killed in explosion at Russian mine
Reuters | April 23, 2022 | 

(Reference image by Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company).

Three miners were killed in an explosion at the Gaisky ore mining and processing plant in Russia’s Orenburg region, Russian news agencies quoted the regional prosecutor’s office as saying on Saturday.


The office also said that the remaining 88 people were evacuated.

The Gaisky copper and zinc mine and mill complex, one of Russia’s largest copper mines, is owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company holding. It is located at the far southern tip of the Ural mountains near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.

(By Lidia Kelly; Editing by Kim Coghill)