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Dangerous part of the job in the coal mining heartland of Mexico

#Dangerous #part #job #coal #mining #heartland #Mexico

Water is the worst enemy of Mexican miner David Huerta, who once survived a similar accident that left ten workers trapped in a flooded tunnel for more than two weeks.

On the day he himself faced death, Huerta saw the beam of a colleague’s headlamp coming towards him quickly, and the cry “Water, water!”

He ran for his life, clawing at the rough mine walls with his body and banging his head on the wooden poles.

“Water is our worst enemy,” said Huerta, 35, who worked in mines in Sabinas, in northern Coahuila, for nearly 13 years.

His brother-in-law Sergio Cruz is one of the missing persons in the approximately 60 meter deep El Pinabete mine, with no sign of life since the August 3 flood.

Authorities believe the miners accidentally dug a hole through which water poured from a larger, abandoned mine nearby.

Water is the biggest challenge for rescue workers, who pump it out 24 hours a day in an operation involving hundreds of people, including soldiers.

Another obstacle is that access to the main tunnel is through narrow vertical shafts that authorities say have been blocked by debris.

A sharp rise in water levels over the weekend dealt a severe blow to rescue efforts.

The government is now hoping to seal the leak with concrete grouting.

– grueling work –

The coal, mined under precarious conditions in small, crude mines with lax safety standards like El Pinabete, helps keep Mexico’s power plants running.

According to official figures, there are about 67 small and medium-sized coal producers in Sabinas.

Between September 2020 and December 2021, the area provided two million tons of coal for power plants operated by the state’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) in Coahuila.

Fossil fuel has had a heavy human cost for miners, who earn the equivalent of $150 to $200 a week.

About 3,100 miners have died in the area since 1883, according to the non-governmental organization Familia Pasta de Conchos, which is campaigning for justice for 65 people who died in a mine in Coahuila in 2006.

Even today, miners work “almost naked” underground in temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius without adequate ventilation, Huerta said.

They spend up to six hours a day – more than their bodies can handle – working bent over or kneeling in cramped conditions without proper protective equipment such as a mask.

“Your only equipment is a helmet and a lamp,” says Cristina Auerbach, director of Familia Pasta de Conchos.

– ‘Owner doesn’t matter’ –

Employers’ lack of knowledge about the geological conditions of the mines is another important risk factor, according to workers and experts.

“They don’t hire engineers. They don’t do any calculations. You don’t measure production. They just take them out and sell them,” said Diego Martinez, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Coahuila.

One reason for the decision to continue mining at El Pinabete may have been the particularly thick coal seam, Huerta said.

“The owner doesn’t care as long as he gets cash,” he said.

The mine’s registered concessionaire has remained silent about the accident and its ownership is opaque.

The government has suspended operations at 27 mines in Coahuila over safety concerns.

But political influence prevented stricter controls that could have saved lives, according to Auerbach.

“The CFE exercises political control over the region because they control all these politicians by giving them coal contracts,” she said.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to find the missing miners, has spoken of local political bosses preventing miners from unionizing.

It is also rare for miners to be enrolled in social security programs.

“Most mines are secret,” Huerta said.

While he no longer risks his life underground to earn a living, others feel they have no other choice.

“We’ve always worked on it and it’s very difficult to give it up,” said father-of-three Luis Armando Ontiveros, 48.

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#Dangerous #part #job #coal #mining #heartland #Mexico

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