At least 10 workers die in Afghanistan mine collapse

Kabul, Feb 3 (EFE).- A coal mine collapse in the northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan has killed at least 10 workers, a provincial official said on Thursday.

Provincial information director Assadullah Mustafa Hashimi said searchers rescued three workers from the caved-in coal mine.

“The mine collapsed after the workers tried extract coal without coordinating with a professional team,” Hashimi said.

The accident took place on Wednesday night when 13 workers were working there without an expert oversight.

Deadly mining accidents are frequent in Afghanistan, with laborers working in basic dangerous pits without safety gears amid little or no oversight of the mining industry by any governmental agency.

In June 2020, at least eight miners lost their lives after an explosion at an illegal coal mine in the Dar-e-Sof district of the northern Samangan province.

At least 30 people were killed after a gold mine collapsed in a remote area of the northern Badakhshan province in In January 2019.

Afghanistan has vast mineral resources and he most important deposits in the country are iron, copper, niobium, and gold.

However, the development of mining is still in its rudimentary phase in many areas of Afghanistan, with workers working in precarious conditions.

According to official estimates by the United States, Afghanistan’s mineral deposits are so valuable that they can transform the country into one of the most important mining centers of the world,

But their exploration and extraction could take decades due to the lack of infrastructure in the war-torn country. EFE

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