An accident that was actually identical to yesterday’s tragedy occurred at Krasnaya Shapochka mine on December 23, 2010. The management of Severouralsk bauxite mine (SUBR) claimed at the time that a rock mass movement was to blame, even though no such thing ever happened. Now they say the accident was caused by failing to observe safety rules during drilling operations, and they will certainly blame everything on the workers,’ says the message on SUBR Independent Trade Union of Russian Miners’ official website.


Now the accident in question occurred at SUBR (UC RUSAL) Novo-Kalyinskaya mine in Severouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region. According to the preliminary data available, a supporting block of rock mass collapsed in the southern section of the mine at 860 meters below the ground, hitting a twenty-four-year-old worker, who got lethal injuries.

‘If one looks at the issue from the inside, it becomes clear that it is the management that is the problem. The organization of the work process makes people work to the extent of their capacity as the lowest output limits only keep rising. The managers often turn a blind eye to the problems for the sake of this or that goal. This means anything can happen, and the tragedies at Raspadskaya and Ulyanovskaya mines are a sad example,’ the trade union reports.