950+ miners trapped almost 4000 feet underground are right now said to be relatively safe, after a massive power outage crippled the area. Spokesmen say they have food, water, and air to breathe. The outage affected a large part of the area. Lifts to bring them to the surface await return of the power supply. Wouldn't one think with mens' lives at stake, such possibility would have been provided for by having stand-by backup power supplies at the ready? Is it attributable to greed? Here where we live, the Casino Hotels have gigantic back-up power supply units standing at the ready, 24/7. Those units are kept in top condition due to the fact that Desert high winds occasionally cripple the local grid. The power in a casino is NEVER out for more than a few mere seconds! Compare the two types of businesses: Underground gold mining, extremely hazardous; localized gambling casinos and resort hotels, catering only to the frivolous. Is there any way to coalesce these two? Frank
Miners rights - its a subject that's always riled me Not good enough in the 20th century ! All measures to protect these men should be in place
I agree with your post @Frank Sanoica. Money seems to always come before people's lives in many circumstances.
I just did a Google search and it appears all were rescued. It was a gold mine. Another reason if I do buy any gold make it recycled or second hand. Not that I need anything.
Apparently they did have a generator but it failed. All 955 workers from a gold mine in South Africa have been safely brought back to the surface. They had been trapped underground since a power cut struck on Wednesday night, and back-up generators failed to work. That was an interesting article. They couldn't pay me enough money to work that far underground. It's dark down there. I suppose the miners who work there don't really have any other option.
I used to manage a territory that included the area around Carlsbad, New Mexico. Nine or ten Potash and salt mines in that area. I used to go down 900 feet to visit with an engineer about the product I was selling. Once he and I were walking down a tunnel when the lights went out. He had a light on his helmet, I didn't. When the lights went out, hesaid to me, you stay right there, I'll be back in a minute. When he left me and disappeared, it was some of that dark. He was gone about five minutes, which seemed an eternity almost. Shortly after the likhts came bacck on he reappeared and we walked on around and went in an office. The nine mines I called on were similar. At another mine I was stuck in an elevator at about the six hundred foot area. It was quite and dark and the imanigination began working overtime. I wouldn't work in a mine either. No way, Jose.