IRAN: THE PROBABILITY OF ANOTHER EXPLOSION IN COAL MINES

NCRI - One of the regime's agents at the Supreme Council for Technical and Health Protection of the Work acknowledged the safety issues in the mines of Kerman Province, stating that, "The incident occurred in Ravar Mine of Kerman on Wednesday could have been as disastrous as Zemestan-Yurt Mine."Zemestan-Yurt is one of the coal mines of Iran located in Azadshahr, Golestan Province.

Following the explosion in the coal mine on Wednesday, May 3 2017, 43 miners died. 3 out of 5 share-holders of the mine are affiliated with Mehr-e-Eghtesad Financial Institution, military and security bodies as well as Basij Organization.

On Sunday, June 23, 2017 in an interview with ILNA News, Ebrahim Eslami stated, "The incident of gas leak occurred in Ravar Mine of Kerman On Wednesday, July 19, at 12 PM, and it is possible that such incidents occur again."

He acknowledged the safety issues of mines in Kerman Province, stipulating that, "The employers of mines in this province do not care about safety instructions because the mining activities have not been profitable. They also do not take measures to solve the safety issues."

In an incident previously reported, one of the security officers was gas-stricken and died while measuring the gas in Ravar coalmine. In order to undertake the rescue operations, two workers entered mine and were poisoned and transferred to the hospital. Twenty workers were working in Ravar Mine at the time of incident.

It is noteworthy that Iran is one of the ten major countries in the world that has various mines and annually 40 billion tons of minerals are produced and extracted. The major mines are coal and iron, nickel, cobalt, sulfur, precious metals, uranium, copper, nonmetallic minerals and so on.

Since most of the country's major mines are currently in the hands of the looters of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), on the average 50 people die annually due to the lack of safety in these mines. Additionally, Iran's mines are first in the world to have deadly incidents.

Meanwhile, the state-run media, including Mehr News admitted that mining activities such as discovery and extraction of natural resources and reserves are considered to be one of the most beneficial and revenue generating sector in the country.

The predatory regime does not value the safety controls for the workers. It is not even willing to spend some of these huge revenues in order to secure mines. The Iran's mines are one of the most unsafe mines in the world. It is worth mentioning that most underprivileged and oppressed workers are aged under 30. They are not also very well educated about mining and safety controls. Their salaries are below the minimum wage set by the cruel regime and the workers do not have any job security and their shift work is sometimes up to 16 hours.