China industrial accidents kill dozens over four days
02 April 2013
According to Xinhua, a landslide outside Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, buried 83 copper miners on March 29. Only one worker survived the disaster at the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine, having earlier left the site earlier to purchase tents in the city.
The news agency said the miners were mostly poor farmers from the southern province of Guizhou recruited to work in the extreme conditions at 4,600 meters (15,100 feet) above sea level.
More than 4,000 rescuers were looking for those buried, but little hope was being held out for their survival, Xinhua said. The sudden collapse of the surrounding hillside left a layer of rocks and soil over the miners 30 meters (98 feet) deep in places, reports said.
A second incident on April 1 saw the death of six miners in a blast at a coal mine outside the city of Baishan in Jilin province, with 11 other miners missing. Xinhua said 28 miners were killed in a similar accident just three days earlier.
The agency said it was not clear why work had restarted at the mine so soon after last week’s blast.
Also on April 1, an explosion at the 100-ton No. 2 furnace at Xinyu Group Iron Works killed four people and left 32 injured.