The cost underground: mining disasters and the laws they forced

On the morning of 10 March 1906, a fire and then an explosion tore through the Courrières coal mines in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais coalfield of northern France. By the official count, 1,099 people died. It remains the worst industrial accident of its kind in Europe.¹

The print here, published in the Netherlands soon after, is titled The crime at Courrières. Its title says what many miners believed: that the deaths were not an accident of nature but a failure of the people running the mine.¹

Coal mines were deadly in a way metal mines rarely were. Coal gives off methane, which explodes when it meets a flame or a spark. Fine coal dust, stirred into the air by a first blast, can carry an explosion through miles of tunnels. Davy's safety lamp of 1817, which we met in chapter 3, helped. But at Bulli in New South Wales in 1887, the Royal Commission found that miners had removed the mesh from their lamps.^2,3

The United States had its worst year in 1907. The Mine Safety and Health Administration records 3,242 coal mining deaths that year, the highest in its series from 1900.⁸

On 6 December 1907 an explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company's mines No. 6 and 8 at Monongah, West Virginia, killed at least 361 men. It is described as the worst mining disaster in United States history. The cause was never proven.^4,8

Monongah was not alone. An explosion at the Darr mine in Pennsylvania later that month killed 239 miners. December 1907 became known as Bloody December: 703 miners died in five US coal mine explosions.⁵

The response was federal. The US Bureau of Mines was created in 1910 to study mine safety. In 2009, 6 December became National Miners Day.⁴

Small causes kept killing large numbers. On 13 November 1909 a car of hay for the mules was left under a lit oil torch in the Cherry mine in Illinois. The hay caught fire shortly after 1 pm. Of 481 men and boys who had gone down that morning, 259 died.⁶

In October 1913 an explosion at the Stag Cañon No. 2 mine at Dawson, New Mexico, killed 263 workers. NIOSH says the cause was an overcharged shot in a dusty pillar section.^5,7

In Britain, the worst came on 14 October 1913. An explosion at the Universal Colliery at Senghenydd in south Wales killed 439 miners. It was the worst mining disaster in the history of the British coalfields. A government inquiry followed.^9,10

Britain had just passed a new law. The Coal Mines Act 1911 consolidated the rules for coal mine regulation. It came on top of the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, which had banned women and girls from working underground.¹²

1913 was also the peak year for British coal, with output of 292 Mt. The industry was at its largest when it was at its most dangerous.¹³

The explosions did not stop. At about 2 am on 22 September 1934, an explosion in a section of the Gresford pit near Wrexham killed 265 men. The inquiry's findings were debated in Parliament in 1937.¹¹

The deadliest coal mine disaster on record happened in occupied China. On 26 April 1942 a gas and coal dust explosion at the Benxihu mine in Liaoning killed an estimated 1,549 miners. Mine managers are reported to have sealed parts of the mine and shut down the ventilation to contain the fire.^14,15

On 8 August 1956 a fire at the Bois du Cazier coal mine at Marcinelle in Belgium killed 262 miners. More than half of them were Italian. Only 13 got out alive. An oil line ran between power cables, which helped cause the fire. On 1 October 1959 the trial court acquitted all the accused.^16,18,19

On 21 January 1960 about 900 pillars collapsed at the Clydesdale colliery at Coalbrook, in the northern Free State of South Africa. The Heritage Portal says 437 miners were buried alive about 180 m down. The rescue effort failed.¹⁷

Metal mines had disasters too. A fire at the Granite Mountain shaft at Butte killed 163 miners in 1917. A fire at the Sunshine silver mine near Kellogg, Idaho, on 2 May 1972 killed 91 men. MSHA lists Sunshine as the deadliest US metal and non-metal mine disaster since 1940.⁷

Not every mining disaster happens underground. On the morning of 21 October 1966 a colliery waste tip slid down the hillside above Aberfan in south Wales. It buried Pantglas Junior School and nearby houses. It killed 144 people. 116 of them were children.²⁰

A tribunal under Lord Justice Edmund Davies was appointed on 26 October 1966. It sat for 76 days and heard 136 witnesses, the longest inquiry of its type in Britain up to then. It reported on 3 August 1967 that blame rested upon the National Coal Board. The report was debated in the Commons on 26 October 1967.^21,23

Lord Robens, chairman of the Coal Board, gave evidence in the final days of the tribunal and admitted the Board had been at fault. He offered to resign. The Minister of Power refused. The tribunal judged parts of his evidence unreliable.^23,24

Two years later Parliament passed the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, which covers the security of tips at mines and quarries. Waste heaps had become something the law watched.²²

The same year, on 30 December 1969, President Nixon signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, setting federal health and safety rules for US coal mines.²⁵

Danger underground went with conflict above ground. On 20 April 1914, National Guardsmen aligned with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company attacked the tent colony of striking miners at Ludlow, Colorado. The National Park Service counts 21 dead, including 11 children. The strike leader, Louis Tikas, was shot three times in the back under a flag of truce.^26,30

The organiser Mary "Mother" Jones worked with coal miners in Pennsylvania from the 1890s and West Virginia from 1902. At 84 she was held for 85 days in a makeshift prison after the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strike. She died aged 100.²⁷

At Hawks Nest in West Virginia, from 1930, workers dry-drilled a three-mile tunnel through almost pure silica. The dust caused silicosis. The National Park Service says at least 764 died, and most of the dead were African American.²⁸

Conflict did not end in the 20th century. On 16 August 2012 police shot and killed 34 striking mineworkers near the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana in South Africa. The Farlam Commission sat from October 2012 to November 2014. It found Lonmin had failed to engage with its workers.²⁹

After many disasters, the most lasting result was the inquiry report. At 5:20 am on 9 May 1992, the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, exploded and killed the 26 miners underground. Justice Peter Richard led the public inquiry. He described a story of incompetence and mismanagement, and titled his report A Predictable Path to Disaster.³¹

On 5 April 2010 a methane ignition turned into a coal dust explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, run by a subsidiary of Massey Energy. It killed 29 miners. MSHA blamed unlawful company practices.³⁴

Some lessons were about maps. On 14 November 1996, water from the long-abandoned Young Wallsend Colliery burst through the face at Gretley Colliery in New South Wales and drowned four men. The inquiry found that the old workings were wrongly placed on the plans by 100 to 200 m.³⁵

Some deaths came slowly. Blue asbestos was mined at Wittenoom Gorge in Western Australia from 1933 to 1966. The Western Australian government says it has caused thousands of deaths.³³

The largest recent disasters have come from waste, not from the mine itself. Tailings are the finely ground rock left after the metal is taken out. Many mines store them behind earth dams. On 4 August 2014 the tailings dam at Mount Polley in British Columbia breached. The independent panel found a weak layer of glacial lake clay in the foundation.³⁹

In November 2015 the Fundão tailings dam at the Samarco iron ore operation near Mariana in Brazil failed. The Guardian says 19 people died. The dam held 56.4 million cubic metres of tailings after seven years of use.^36,37

In 2019 the tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine near Brumadinho collapsed and killed 270 people.³⁸

Tailings can poison rivers too. On 30 January 2000 a breach in the Aurul tailings dam at Baia Mare in Romania released about 100,000 cubic metres of water containing cyanide. It reached the Tisza and the Danube. You can read more about tailings dams in our glossary.⁴⁰

In July 2020 a lake formed by monsoon rain burst through jade mining waste at Hpakant in Myanmar. It swept away informal miners who were scavenging the waste. Global Witness gives at least 174 dead.⁴¹

On 19 November 2010, an explosion at the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand killed 29 men. The Royal Commission found the company's health and safety systems inadequate and criticised the Department of Labour. It made 16 principal recommendations, including an independent safety regulator.⁶⁵

In May 2014 a fire and explosion at the Eynez mine in Soma killed 301 miners, mostly by carbon monoxide poisoning. It is the worst mining disaster in Turkish history.⁴²

One story ended well. On 5 August 2010 a collapse at the San José mine near Copiapó in Chile trapped 33 miners about 700 m down. The shift foreman, Luis Urzúa, rationed the emergency food to two spoonfuls of tuna and half a glass of milk every 48 hours. He used his surveying training to map the tunnels.^43,44

On 22 August a rescue drill broke through. The eldest of the 33, Mario Gómez, aged 63, tied a note to the probe. It said "Patience and faith". President Piñera read it out live on television. All 33 were brought out alive by 13 October 2010, after 69 days.⁶⁴

Patience and faith

Drag to turn the globe

Coal output kept rising even as the disasters went on. The chart shows Australian coal production. Australia's worst mining disaster, at Mount Kembla on 31 July 1902, killed 96 of the 261 men underground.^45,46

Australia coal production, 1850 to 2021

Next: the iron age, again

Coal was mined above all to make steel. In 1856 an English inventor found a way to make steel cheaply in bulk. Within a generation, the world wanted iron ore in quantities nobody had imagined. The search took prospectors to the Arctic, to India and, finally, to a red range in the north-west of Australia that a pilot spotted from his plane. Read on in chapter 8: iron, steel and the Pilbara.^66,67