Fatalities did increase 19% in 2006 to 190, largely due to the Sago Mine accident in West Virginia in January.
In West Virginia's coal mining communities this weekend, funeral services are being held for victims of the Sago Mine accident this past week.
Luckily, some are already on the books, thanks to the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, an outgrowth of the Sago Mine accident in West Virginia in January 2006.
On the downside, China Coal Energy fell 0.8% after a flooding accident at a mine operated by a unit killed four miners, prompting a suspension of all the unit's operations.
The accident at the Harmony Gold mine in South Africa and the freeing of more than 3, 000 trapped miners has once again turned attention to the issue of mine safety.
In August, as the U.S. watched rescuers attempt unsuccessfully to reach workers trapped following a fatal accident at a Utah coal mine, lawmakers inevitably called for tougher safety regulations to govern the industry.
According to the Colombian Geological Survey (Ingeominas), an accident was reported at the Desespero coal mine.
Better supervision of a mine with a poor safety record might have prevented the accident.
Finding the mine's owners overwhelmed by Chile's worst mining accident in decades, he ordered his government to take charge and called in experts from Codelco, the big state-owned copper producer.
It said the accident occurred after people dug in dangerous areas of the mine.
An accident at a major US-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia's eastern province of Papua has left workers trapped, officials say.
Sago a town of a few houses, a church and the mine instantly was turned into the center of national attention as word of the accident spread.
He immediately sent Mr Golborne back to Chile and soon followed him to the mine, reportedly against the advice of aides loth to see his image tainted by the accident.
Blankenship says the accident "could have happened to anyone" and partly blames faulty maps of the old mine.
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