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Events/Disaster · 2006

Sago mine explosion

Disaster, 2006-01-02, United States.

What happened

An explosion at the Sago mine in Upshur County, West Virginia on 2 January 2006 killed 12 miners, according to MSHA.1,2

Why it matters

It is one of two US coal mine disasters with more than ten deaths between 2000 and 2007 on the MSHA list, with Jim Walter No. 5.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Rossing uranium mine: Wikidata inception date

    The Namibian open pit uranium mine is dated to 1976 in Wikidata.3

  2. Wilberg mine fire

    MSHA lists it as a fire, while most coal disasters on its list are explosions.1,4

  3. Westray mine explosion

    The inquiry report is titled A Predictable Path to Disaster.5,6

  4. BHP leaves Ok Tedi after river damage claims

    It links a miner's exit from a mine to claims over river damage.7,8

  5. China cuts rare earth export quota

    USGS says rare earth product prices rose sharply in 2010 after the drop in exports.9,10,11

  6. Manefay landslides at Bingham Canyon

    UGS says Kennecott had a sophisticated network of geotechnical monitors in place.12,13

  7. Argyle diamond mine ends mining

    It ended the main source of rare pink diamonds.14,15

  8. Wodgina lithium mine restarts

    Part of the 2022 restart wave.16,17

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Where next

Events

An example ofUpper Big Branch mine explosionSago killed 12 in 2006. Upper Big Branch, also in West Virginia, killed 29 in 2010.1An example ofMonongah mine explosionWest Virginia's mines: Monongah in 1907, Sago in 2006.18

Sources

  1. Fact Sheet 95-8: Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  2. Sago (item Q7399331), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q1504704 (Rossing uranium mine)
  4. Orangeville (item Q482419), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster, executive summary Government of Nova Scotia
  6. Westray Mine (item Q3314812), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. BHP lawsuit re Papua New Guinea (Ok Tedi) Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
  8. Ok Tedi environmental disaster (item Q7081685), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. China's Rare-Earth Industry, OFR 2011-1042 US Geological Survey
  10. Rare-Earth Elements, Professional Paper 1802-O US Geological Survey
  11. Beijing (item Q956), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Bingham Canyon's Manefay Landslides and the Future of the Mine Utah Geological Survey
  13. Bingham Canyon Mine (item Q2450901), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. The iconic Argyle diamond mine delivers its final production (3 Nov 2020) Rio Tinto
  15. Argyle diamond mine (item Q652475), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  16. WA Battery and Critical Minerals Profile, March 2024 Western Australian Treasury Corporation
  17. Wodgina mine (item Q2587675), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  18. Monongah (1907) e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia (WV Humanities Council)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.