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Trapped miners Chile.


pachapapa
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While like everyone else I'm so very glad that the Chilean miners escaped I read in the papers today that in China, 26 coal miners are dead and 11 missing 80 metres underground.  I wonder if this will attract the same media attention or the other 2631 miners reported to have died in China last year.  Now that is excessive and unacceptable to me
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Enigma of the 34 fatalities.There has not been an incidence of 34 in the last 10 years but the average for the last 10 years is 34.

There is another 34 extant, as of the 14th oct 2010 and including the 2 fatal accidents during the month in progress the total for 2010, year to date is 34.

There are 3 regional ares in chile with small mines, less than 12 employees, in which accident rates are extremely high; these are Antofagasta, Atacama and Coquimbo.

In the year to date;

Antofagasta   9

Atacama       10

Coquimbo      9

Total            28

The three regions are noted for the rudimentary largely manual methods of working, resulting in low productivity and often needless exposure to danger.

http://www.sernageomin.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=144&Itemid=209

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[quote user="Hoddy"]A quote from my original post - "an average of 34 men a year die " Hoddy[/quote]

Sorry again! I had remembered it as....on average 34 men a year die....

I appreciate your background to mining in the "valleys' but pedantically the use of the word men is incorrect as women also work in Chilean Mines.

Indeed in one year alone 5 women were killed in the Southern Region of Chile.

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[quote user="Hoddy"]May I respectfully suggest that you read more carefully Pachapapa ? I have no background of mining "in the valleys". I think I am one of the few feminists who is quite happy to use the word 'man' in its generic sense. Hoddy[/quote]

In Chile the collective noun is trabajadores/workers.

Whilst the approximately 7 % of the workforce in chilean mines is female, the Gaby Mine in the Antofagasta region is reputed to have 23% .

http://www.codelco.com/english/la_corporacion/division_gaby.asp

Oh small point the name Gaby may puzzle you, it of course comes from Gabriela Mistral.

I leave you to google her.[:)]

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What is the death rate like in the mine workings of Potosi in Bolivia PPP?

Pretty awful I would think, all the miners are independant and/or work in small teams, the only companies seem to be the ore processors and even they have minimal safety measures in place, in the mine I was not aware of any and I was in the areas deemed fit for tourists, I belive that there have been a few tourists killed that did not get out of the way of the speeding ore carts.

The average life expectancy of the miners I believe was less than 40  years.

Please correct anything that is wrong [:)]

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Although fatal accidents are supposed to be reported to the police this often does not occur. An esimated 10,000 miners enter the adits at Cerro Rico every day through well over 100 tunnels from the surface. A fatal accident per week is the norm, frankly I reckon probably more, so around 100 per year for that one "working mine" is is quite likely. At Huanuni some 50 kms from Potosi there are around 5,000 workers, of which maybe 1,000 are employed by the state, the rest are members of many mining cooperatives. Again a fatality a week is the accepted norm, I would reckon in a year maybe 80 fatalities. The mining industry is chaotic, indeed verging on anarchy, in Bolivia and Evo Morales has problems trying to get even some basic control. One measure was to do mine survey of Cerro Rico, no idea on progress, doubt that even Evo has an idea; remember the deposit has been mined for 500 years since the Spanish Conquistadores.The miners protect their rights if necessary with violence and resist any economic incursion by outside foreign interests; any rationalisation would create widespread unemployment.Even pitched battles with sharpshooters and explosives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG8nAFUkphg

Hopefully Evo Morales will get an efficient infrastructure in place for the rational large scale exploitation of lithium.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have had a professional interest in Chile and their mining industry. So I am biased.

As to safety in the fiscal year 2009, there were 34 fatalities in the Chilean Mining Industry.

Twenty of these fatalities were in small mines, less than 12 workers, many of these mines were illegal.

On monday this week 2 miners were killed in an illegal mine some 50 kms north-east of Copiapo and a third miner was seriously injured.

The mine was unknown to the authorities until the accident, in the furore the mexican owner of the illegal mine, in possession of a visitor's visa, was able to hot foot it over the border into argentina.

http://www.cooperativa.cl/dos-trabajadores-murieron-en-el-accidente-minero-de-atacama/prontus_nots/2010-11-08/170049.html

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