BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Nine workers were killed at two small coal mines in Colombia when gases ignited and caused cave-ins, relief workers and the mining regulator said yesterday.
The accidents were far from the key coal operations of Drummond, Cerrejon and Glencore’s Prodeco that ship the majority of output in Colombia, the world’s No. 5 coal exporter.
In the rural zone of Lenguazaque in central Cundinamarca province, an explosion at a small mine killed two workers late on Tuesday, rescuers said.
The mining regulator, Ingeominas, said seven people were killed in another blast in Guacheta town, also in Cundinamarca. Both mines were legally operating, it said. The explosions were the latest in a series of mine accidents in South America this year, including a collapse in Chile in August that buried 33 workers until they were rescued after two months underground.
In June, an explosion killed around 70 coal miners in one of Colombia’s worst mining disasters.
