coalminecolombia.jpg Rescue personnel coordinate to search for missing miners after an explosion at a Colombian underground coal mine. Photo: ReutersAt least eleven miners at an underground coal mine in Colombia have died and two remain missing after an explosion caused by methane gas, the government said on Saturday (local time). The explosion took place on Friday in the Cucunuba municipality in Cundinamarca province, an area where illegal underground coal mining is widespread and accidents are not uncommon. "The partial total is 11 dead, one injured and two trapped," the government said in a statement. Legal coal mining in the mountainous Andean country, the world's fifth-largest exporter of coal, is dominated by Cerrejon, Drummond Co Inc and Glencore PLC.

Source: Otago Daily Times June 25, 2017 02:15 UTC