More than half a billion dinars from Kolubara Coal Mine have been donated to various associations over the past few years even though the mine suffered losses.
B92 program Insajder has revealed abuse of office in the company which is a part of the Serbian Power Company (EPS) and which has not been monitored.
A resource-rich government takes on foreign mining firms
BRITISH colonialists called Ghana the Gold Coast. To this day it remains Africa’s second-biggest producer of the metal, after South Africa, and the world’s ninth-biggest. Five foreign mining firms are digging huge open pits to get at the gold, encouraged by recent record prices. But the country, once seen as one of Africa’s most welcoming jurisdictions for mining firms, is now becoming more exacting.
Ghana’s parliament has voted to increase royalties from 3% to 5%, although the president has yet to sign the bill. In February the country’s environmental regulator suspended production at AngloGold Ashanti’s Iduapriem mine because the mine’s tailings dam, which stores cyanide-laced waste, was almost full. Last year the agency prevented Golden Star Resources, a Canadian firm, from expanding a mine where it had failed to fill an abandoned pit. Most notably, earlier this year it fined Newmont, the world’s second-biggest goldmining firm, $4.9m over a cyanide spill at its Ahafo mine. …
A fire in a coal mine in central China has killed 25 miners, authorities said on Wednesday, with several others still believed to be missing. The accident occurred on Tuesday at the Lisheng mine in the city of Xiangtan in Hunan province, the local government said in a statement on its
Relatives of victims of a gas blast at a mine in northeastern China scuffled with police and demanded answers from the owners on Monday as state media put the toll from the country’s latest mine disaster at 104. The explosion at the mine in Hegang in the frigid province of Heilongjiang
A gas explosion at a mine in northeast China early Saturday killed 15 workers and left 114 trapped, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) said. The incident happened at about 2:30 am (1830 GMT Friday) at a mine in Heilongjiang province, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the provincial
1963: Two industrial tragedies in Japan claim the lives of more than 600 people.
The first accident occurred at the Miike coal mine between Omuta and Arao. Ten mining carts loaded with coal were being hauled to the surface at around 3:12 in the afternoon. One of the chains linking the carts together severed and sent [...]
A gas explosion at a coal mine in China’s central Henan province early on Tuesday killed 35 people and 44 others were missing, the government’s work safety watchdog said. Another 14 workers had escaped the mine, which was a small, locally operated venture, at the time of the accident,
In a new research, two engineers from the University of Oviedo, Spain, have determined that mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns.
The engineers in question are Rafael Rodriguez, from the Oviedo Higher Technical School of Mining Engineering and his colleague Maria Belarmina [...]
British mining company Vedanta will face activists at its annual general meeting later, protesting against the firm’s plans to open a mine in India.
The Kondh tribe says the opening of the bauxite mine will destroy a large part of the Niyamgiri Mountain in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.
An elder of the tribe will attend the meeting, while environmental campaigner Bianca Jagger will protest outside.
They will appeal to investors to stop Vedanta going ahead with the mine.
Vedanta says the project is ethically and environmentally sound.
"We have been living in harmony with this mountain, these forests, these animals for generations. Vedanta has been here for less than 10 years. "
Sitaram Kulisika, Kondh tribe elder
Ms Jagger is supported by UK-based campaign groups, including ActionAid and Survival International.
They plan to be outside the meeting at Lincoln’s Inn, London, with a yellow mining digger to illustrate the kind of mining assault they say Vedanta will launch on the Niyamgiri hills, which many tribal peoples believe to be sacred.
The meeting is due to start at 1500 BST.
Way of life
ActionAid has bought a single share in Vedanta for tribal activist Sitaram Kulisika so that he can attend the meeting on behalf of the Kondh tribe.
"Last year Vedanta directors promised not to mine without our consent. I am here to request all shareholders to honour that promise and save our livelihood and our god," he said.
"We have been living in harmony with this mountain, these forests, these animals for generations. Vedanta has been here for less than 10 years.
"They cannot tell us what is best for our future."
Ms Jagger has called on investors, including the Church of England and some borough councils, to rethink their involvement with Vedanta.
The Church has shares in Vedanta worth £2.5m ($4.1m).
Mining giant Vedanta is based in the UK but has most of its operation in India.
It is about to start mining bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, to be processed at a refinery that has already been built in the area.
Bauxite is used to make aluminium.
The company and its Indian partner have been accused of forcing people to move from the land. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Gunmen fired Wednesday at vehicles operated by U.S. mining company Freeport in Indonesia’s impoverished Papua province, injuring two guards and a policeman in the latest attack on the world’s largest gold mine, polic…
Indonesia has detained 17 suspects in the killings near the Freeport gold and copper mine in the Indonesian province of Papua.
A top Freeport executive told colleagues in a conference call that six people had been charged.
The 17 are suspected of involvement in ambushes near the largely American-owned Grasberg mine earlier this month, which left three people dead.
At least 12 other people, mostly police, were wounded in the attacks.
Papua has long been the scene of largely peaceful activism for independence from Indonesia, which took control of the area in a disputed 1969 vote.
The recent ambushes killed Australian Drew Grant, an Indonesian security guard and a policeman.
They have variously been blamed on separatists or on security forces who analysts say may be pressing for more payments or perks from the wealthy mine.
The Grasberg mining complex is operated by the US conglomerate Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold.
Suspicions
"We are still questioning (the suspects) intensively to determine their role in the three (fatal) shooting incidents," said Papua Police Chief Bagus Ekodanto.
On Monday, police found bullets and food stored along the road leading to the Freeport mine and suspect the cache could have been intended for another attack, Mr Ekodanto said.
In a conference call with analysts, the company’s CEO, Richard Adkerson, said he knew of 15 arrests, including one man he said apparently acknowledged being a sniper in the attacks.
He said six people had been charged.
A military spokesman said, "no members of the military were among the 17 people detained by police." While the military insist separatists were behind the attacks, the police have said there is no evidence to support this claim.
Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has even suggested the involvement of foreign countries that have an "interest in destabilising Freeport".
The shootings were the worst violence at Freeport since the killing of three schoolteachers, including two Americans, in August 2002 that sparked widespread protests by locals who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua’s natural resources.
Foreign journalists are prohibited from visiting the highly militarised province of about 2.5 million people.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nine South African miners have been killed after a shaft collapsed, trapping them hundreds of metres below ground, a mining company has confirmed.
Impala Platinum said the accident happened on Monday at the Rustenburg mine, north-west of Johannesburg.
The firm said the bodies of those who died had now been recovered.
Accidents are common in South Africa’s mines, which are some of the deepest in the world. A fire at an illegal mine last month killed more than 60 people.
Impala Platinum said in a statement they were informing the families of those who died.
"We have set aside Friday as a day of mourning across our operations," the firm said.
Impala’s boss, David Brown, said earlier he was "devastated" by the "major tragedy".
"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of our employees at this time," he said.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Just discovered a site exploring 25 abstract and beautiful wallpapers that can be used to improve your iPhone screen. Which one do you like best? Mine is the one I posted below.
[via PSDFan]
Rescuers reach three men who survived in flooded mine by chewing coal
Three miners survived 25 days in a flooded mine in southern China by drinking dirty water and chewing coal before rescuers burrowed through a collapsed tunnel to reach them, a local official and state media said today.
The men and 13 others were trapped when the Xinqiao coal mine flooded on 17 June. Yesterday rescue workers digging into the mountainside cleared a path to the miners and saw their lights, which still gave off a dim glow, said Wang Guangneng, a Communist party spokesman in Qinglong county, Guizhou province.
The miners stayed alive by drinking water that seeped through the earth and were in a stable condition, Wang said.
The Guiyang Evening News said the miners chewed coal to stave off their hunger pangs.
It was not clear whether the men had any information about the miners who were still missing. Rescuers found the body of one miner a week after the flooding, Xinhua said.
A Xinhua photo showed one of the rescued miners, Wang Kuangwei, his bones prominent through his skin, getting medical attention yesterday, with his eyes covered to protect them from the light.
During an interview with Shenzhen Media Group television, 36-year-old Zhao Weixing, who was lying down with his eyes and face covered, said: “I feel OK.”
The miners’ rescue after 604 hours underground was a rare tale of survival in China’s coal mines, the world’s deadliest, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day. Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of ventilation or fire control equipment.
In August 2007, two brothers survived nearly six days in a mine tunnel by chewing coal and sipping urine from discarded water bottles. They even managed to crack jokes about their wives remarrying after they were declared dead.
The miners rescued yesterday – all from central Henan province – were found 500-600 metres from the entrance to the mineshaft, on a level intersection that protected them from the flood, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported. The ceiling had collapsed, blocking a path to the tunnel opening.
The county’s head of work safety, Li Xingwei, was digging a channel into the mountain and found an unblocked pathway, then noticed the miners’ lights. “We crept along the tunnel in excitement,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Rescuers shouted to the men to remain calm, the Beijing Youth Daily report said. Once rescued, it said, the miners did nothing but ask for water.
The body of a policeman has been found near a US Freeport gold mine in the Indonesian province of Papua, raising the recent death toll there to three.
Indonesia has increased its deployment of security forces to the province after the death of two mine employees.
The unexplained series of shootings began over the weekend.
The mine has previously been a target of Papuan separatist anger, but has also been the site of fighting between soldiers and police.
On Saturday, a 29-year old Australian employee of Freeport Mining was shot at and killed by unknown attackers while he was travelling in a Freeport vehicle at dawn, reportedly as he was on his way to play golf.
On Sunday, a Freeport security guard died after a gun battle reportedly broke out between Indonesian police and unknown attackers. The shooting took place near Freeport’s Grasberg mining complex, one of the world’s largest producers of copper and gold.
Freeport Mining’s Indonesian spokesman Mindo Pangaribuan says that security has been tightened in the area and that the mine’s operations have not been disturbed.
Mr Pangaribuan told the BBC’s Indonesia correspondent Karishma Vaswani that these are the first fatal shootings of Freeport employees since the killing of two American workers at the firm in 2002.
The huge Grasberg mine is a source of friction with local people, who have complained about its environmental impact and their share of any revenue generated by the company.
Separatist insurgents have also been active in resource-rich Papua province since the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A security guard has been shot dead outside an Indonesian mine operated by the US company Freeport.
The attack, in Papua province, comes a day after an Australian man working for the company was shot dead in an ambush.
Police said suspected separatist militants had opened fire on officers investigating the earlier attack.
The huge Grasberg mine is a source of friction with local people, who have complained about its environmental impact and their share of its revenue.
Supporters of Papuan independence see the mine as a symbol of unfair rule from Jakarta. Two Americans and an Indonesian were shot dead in an ambush there in 2002.
A police spokesman was quoted by local media as saying that police engaged armed men in a gunbattle after the killing of the guard, named as Markus Rattealo, an employee of Freeport’s Indonesian subsidiary.
One report said five people were injured in the attack.
The resource-rich Papua province has been embroiled in separatist insurgency since the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962.
The mine has some of the world’s largest recoverable copper and gold reserves. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
An Australian man has been shot dead near the Grasberg mine in Indonesia’s restive Papua province, say reports.
The man is reported to have been an engineer working at the gold and copper mine – one of the world’s largest – owned by US giant Freeport McMoRan.
The mine has been a frequent source of unrest over its impact on the environment and the proportion of its revenues going to local people.
In 2002, two American teachers were shot dead in an ambush at the facility.
In a statement, Freeport McMoRan said a shot had been fired at one of its vehicles in the early hours of the morning.
The man who was killed had been sitting in the back of the vehicle and none of the other passengers was injured, said the company.
Police chief Bagus Ekodanto told Reuters the shooting had happened on the road between Tembagapura and Timika.
It is not clear who carried out the attack.
The resource-rich Papua province has been embroiled in separatist insurgency since the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962.
Supporters of Papua independence see the mine – which has some of the world’s largest recoverable copper and gold reserves – as a symbol of unfair rule from Jakarta.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
