After Chile: pits collapse in China and Ecuador

Joy at the safe rescue of all 33 trapped miners in Chile last week has been thrown into sharp relief by news of two more mining catastrophes. At least 28 men have died in China and Ecuador, while 13 remain trapped or unaccounted for, emphasising just how exceptional the Chile rescue was in an all-too-dangerous occupation.

On Friday, a section of tunnel collapsed at the Casa Negra gold, silver and copper mine in the south of Ecuador, trapping four miners. Two have now been found, dead, under the debris and rescuers (above) are continuing to dig towards the area where the others were working.

With Chile's reputation for rescuing trapped miners obviously high just now, Chilean president Sebastian Pinera offered to send help to Ecuador. It is not known if the offer was accepted.

Hours after the Casa Negra collapse, in the early hours of Saturday, a gas explosion in a coal mine in central China – near Yuzhou in Henan province – killed 26 men outright, and trapped another 11. The state news agency said rescuers were trying to reach them.

Dozens of relatives and friends of the trapped miners have gathered outside the pit in scenes reminiscent of the San Jose incident in Chile. Rescue attempts are being hampered by tons of coal dust.

Sadly, there is nothing unusual about these events. Mining accidents in China, which produces 40 per cent of the world’s coal, are so common they are not reported unless more than a dozen workers die.

On average last year, seven Chinese miners died every day – a total of 2,631, according to China’s own official statistics. China accounts for 80 per cent of the world’s mining fatalities.

The situation is better than it was. In 2005, the annual death toll in China stood closer to 6,000 before the government closed down 1,250 illegal mines and strengthened the requirements for safety inspections.

There are now hopes that the worldwide publicity surrounding the near-disaster in Chile – the rescue of the 33 miners was shown on Chinese television - will put pressure on China and other countries to improve safety conditions still further.

Journalist Charles Glass was one of several commentators to respond to the "miracle" of the Chilean rescue with a warning that vast improvements are still needed worldwide. He wrote in the Independent: "More miners will die in Chile, in South Africa, in Russia, China and in the US... The world cares about workers when they are stuck at the bottom of the shaft, but not when they venture into subterranean depths every morning before the sun rises, work there until their hands bleed and come up with dust-coated lungs."

Today, in what appeared to be an unprecedented effort to tell the public that not all pit owners are as bad as each other, the mining giant Anglo American took full-page ads in Sunday papers to state that "At Anglo American, safety comes first, second and third". ·