Gold Miners rescued ..Acts of God or man ?

The situation ( at Beaconsfield goldmine, Tasmania, Aus. affected by an earthquake in October) recalls the US's "miracle" rescue of the Quecreek miners trapped below ground in a flood in 2002. As Indiana University of Pennsylvania Professor Charles McCollester wrote about that near disaster:

The most common characterization of the incident was the appellation: “miraculous”, In this conservative and religious rural area, a combination of the memory of many mining deaths, the dedication and commitment of the rescuers, and the solidarity of their God may well have had a hand in the rescue, but the flooding can’t be pinned on the deity.

Human avarice and more than a century of fierce manipulation and corporate struggle for profit and control were behind the wall of water that swept into the Quecreek mine.

It looks as though we might be hearing a lot more about this "miracle".

Australian Workers Union national vice-president Paul Howes said yesterday the union was preparing for the worst. "We have issues with the mine and we did before this disaster, and they aren't all safety-related," Mr Howes said.

"All mining is dangerous but we had major concerns about this mine after October," "There have been issues and obviously they haven't been rectified.

"The Beaconsfield story won't be over for a long time."

Asia News reports that one of the most pointed questions was asked of mine manager Matthew Gill at an impromptu news conference outside the pithead by a veteran Australian television reporter who collapsed and died of a heart attack just seconds later.

"Mr Gill, on October 26 last year, not 10 metres from where these men are now entombed, you had a 400-tonne rockfall," asked Richard Carleton, 62, renowned for his touchy questions.

"Is it [because of] the wealth of the seam that you continue to send men in to work in such a dangerous environment?"

Without turning his head to look at Carleton, Mr Gill brushed the question aside, saying the focus was on bringing the two trapped men out alive and that anything else had to wait.

The mine has been closed and miners paid a month's wages pending a safety inspection.

Beaconsfield Gold director Michael Trumbull said Australian Mining Consultants in
Melbourne had made a recommendation to the joint venture on "checkerboarding" - removing alternate squares of rock in a tunnel to put less stress on rocks.

Beaconsfield Gold and Allstate shares were suspended on the stock exchange on Wednesday.

Read more at Confined Space ,a first rate US site on Workplace Health & Safety, Labor and Politics and here