Word: mined
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...explosion at the Massey Energy company's Upper Big Branch mine was the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in 26 years. The U.S. is one of the safest places for the profession; last year the country recorded 34 fatalities, an all-time low, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. China, one of the world's deadliest places for mining, has seen improvements in the safety of its mines, albeit from the high numbers of accidents in past years. In 2009, 2,631 people died in Chinese mines, down from a peak of 6,995 in 2002. (See pictures...
...safety disparity has many causes, including greater automation in the U.S. and a more sustained focus on workplace safety. China depends on relatively cheap coal as a key source of energy for its rapidly growing economy, and its mines churn out more than twice the amount as the U.S. In 2008, China produced 2.85 billion tons of coal, versus 1.17 billion in the U.S. Coal mines are responsible for a large share of global mine disasters because they are more likely to produce toxic and combustible gases than metal or other mines...
Independent safety experts have said that China's actual total of mining deaths could be much higher, since mine operators and local authorities face pressure to conceal accidents. This year nine Chinese reporters were jailed for accepting bribes to cover up a mine disaster in Hebei province that killed 34 miners a little over a month before the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. By contrast, the recent rescue at the Wangjialing pit has received close coverage from state-run press. "This kind of heroic rescue operation always gets a lot of coverage in the official Chinese media...
...rescue efforts drag on, journalists at the scene of the Shanxi mine have reported difficulty speaking with family members or obtaining up-to-date numbers of the total number of fatalities. Twelve miners have been confirmed dead, and another 26 are missing, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. But the total number of missing miners has fluctuated over the ordeal, likely because some of the workers were not counted as regular employees and missing from any official tally of miners in the pit. Chinese investigators suspect the accident was caused when workers broke through to an illegal, unregistered shaft...
Chinese authorities have struggled for years to control mine disasters. Inspectors have forced the closure of small, illegal mines, but that has put more pressure on larger, more reputable operators, like the state-owned China National Coal Group, which co-owns the Wangjialing mine. And while the annual death totals have declined even as coal production increases, it will likely be years more before the annual total drops below 1,000. (See the top 10 news stories...