A miner has died after being buried by a mudflow at a mine in Benguet on Luzon Island in the Philippines on Sunday 22 December 2013. Rogelio Guleng (55) was working in a tunnel 782 m bellow the surface at the Philex Mining operated Padcal Mine when he was buried by a mud discharge. He was dug out by colleagues but died on the way to hospital.
A worker at the Padcal Mine. Elmer Kristian Dauigoy/Inquirer News.
A mud discharge in a mine typically happens when excavation exposes a pocket of mud (a mixture of clay and water), which then flows into the shaft. The Padcal Mine, which produces gold and copper and which is the oldest deep pit mine in the country, has suffered a string of water related events in recent years, including flooding and discharge of water from spoil ponds. Philex have faced a series of government imposed sanctions, including fines and orders to cease activity while problems are tackled, despite objections that many of these problems were beyond the companies control and related to typhoons that have affected the site. Conversely local environmental groups have accused the government of not doing enough to regulate the mine.
The approximate location of the Padcal Mine. Google Maps.
See also At least two dead following landslides at mining site on Dinagat Island in the Philippines, Two killed in escalating violence over mining in Davao del Sur Province, Mindanao, the Philippines, Six Chinese miners arrested at illegal Philippine goldmine, Miner killed by gas on Mindanao Island and Operations ceased at Padcal Mine following flooding.
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