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The disaster prompted the government to set up the
National Mine Disaster Fund. With segregation being a policy of governance for the Apartheid regime, the Workmen Compensation Act entitled a white widow to her deceased husband’s pension fund, while a black widow was only granted a lump sum from the
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Some time between 1957 and 1959 experimental secondary mining was done in No.10 section to recover coal from a mined out area of the mine. Top coaling raised the roof height to between 4.3 and 6.1 m. On 28 December 1959 a collapse occurred in the northern part of the section 10 mine, an area where
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began as a method of increasing production in areas that had already been mined. In 1932 the tunnels were 2.4 m high, in 1948 some top coaling was done to raise the height to 3.7 m, but the coal yielded was a poor grade and the practice stopped. In 1951 top coaling began once again as a new
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in the mine for any rescue team to penetrate the South East of section 10, one of the solutions was to drill from the surface all the way down into the entombed shaft. A sophisticated new drill rig at the time was used, but the drill bits wore down as they encountered hard lava rock.
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mining company. Of the miners killed, six were white South
Africans, while half of the remainder were black miners from the then British High Commission Territory of Basutoland, and a little under half of the others were black miners came from Portuguese East Africa.
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of 1956, with the third one being a judicial inquest. The inquests found that the deaths occurred as a result of the subsidence of the mine itself. They also revealed that the collapse of 28 December was not reported to mining inspectors, as was mandatory.
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Miners felt a strong blast wind, many of whom rushed up to the surface but were instructed to return underground or face imprisonment. Only two miners refused to go back underground. The majority of the miners at
Clydesdale Colliery were
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It is reported that in the afternoon of 21 January 1960 miners who were operating in the western part of the section 10 mine heard loud noises that were trailed by a strong blast wind that was coming from the south east section.
80:. The disaster occurred in the Coalbrook coal mine of Clydesdale Colliery on 21 January 1960 at around 19:00 when approximately 900 pillars caved in, almost 180 metres (590 ft) underground. The mine is situated in the
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electricity power station had been built and it was able to use lower grade coal. The roof height was raised to 4.3 m and 5.5 m in places, and by 1957 top coaling was a significant contributor to production.
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That collapse was stopped from spreading by a barrier wall to the south end of section 10. This incident did not affect coal extraction from the south. However, it did go unreported to mining inspectors.
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Following the disaster, the South
African government established Coal Mines Research Controlling Council to improve coal mine safety and research pillar strength, supported by the
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In this time "dummies" of 4 metres wide and 2 metres deep were mined out of the barriers, and in some cases up to four sides of the pillars too, to yield additional coal.
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were drilled into areas where survivors were expected to be. When microphones were lowered, no signs of life were detected. After 11 days the rescue was called off.
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88:. About 1,000 miners were in the mine at the time and 437 died after being trapped, while the rest escaped through an incline shaft. The miners were suffocated by
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The tunnels in the mine were between 6.1 and 6.7 metres wide. Pillars and panels of coal were left between the tunnels to keep the mine roof from collapsing.
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The production at the mine had increased from 134,230 tons per year in 1954 to 2,260,660 tons per year by 1958, in response to the newly built
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Montero, Frank; Scheinman, William X.; Courtney, Winifred; Howe, Russell Warren (1960). "Out of Africa: Reports from Our
Correspondents".
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obtained rescue equipment to reach men trapped underground in coal mines. Similar equipment was used to rescue trapped
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where a few pillars fail initially and this increases the load on the adjacent pillars causing them to fail. This
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the pillars were reduced to 18.3 m and the barriers 12.2 m (still separated by tunnels 6.1 to 6.7 m in width)
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374:"1961. The New Age. "12 Months After Coalbrook". Wits Historical Papers. Accessed: 1 August 2018"
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Immediately after the incident, rescue teams arrived from other mines in the region and
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In the months following the disaster, four different inquiries were launched under the
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472:. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Archived from
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470:"The design of stable pillars in the Bushveld Complex mines: a problem solved?"
304:"More than 400 miners are killed in an underground collapse at Coalbrook mine"
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The
Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
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the centres of the barriers and the pillars were 24.4 m apart
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Factors contributing to the collapse included the process of
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reducing the size of structures holding up the tunnel roof.
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1960 mineshaft collapse at
Clydesdale Colliery, South Africa
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caused pillar collapse over an area covering 324 hectares.
335:"The 1960 Coalbrook Disaster | The Heritage Portal"
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the pillars were mined to 19.8 m and barriers to 18.3 m.
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165:most of the top coaling experiments were done.
242:Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
497:"Beyond Coalbrook: what did we really learn?"
468:Malan, D.F.; Napier, J.A.L. (December 2011).
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145:which raised the height of the tunnels and
84:, 21 kilometres (13 mi) south west of
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353:"The world's worst coal mining disasters"
282:"The world's worst coal mining disasters"
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422:"The 435 SA miners who didn't make it"
495:van der Merwe, J.N. (December 2006).
420:Pogrund, Benjamin (14 October 2010).
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62:437 dead and unknown number of mules
92:and crushed to death by rockfall.
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584:Mining disasters in South Africa
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609:1960 disasters in South Africa
249:South African Chamber of Mines
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525:Natural Catastrophes Drivers
339:www.theheritageportal.co.za
130:The accident was caused by
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537:Coalbrook mining disaster
70:Coalbrook mining disaster
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22:Coalbrook Mining Disaster
132:cascading pillar failure
52:Cascading Pillar Failure
177:Pillar and panel mining
147:pillar and panel mining
594:Mining in South Africa
115:Causes of the disaster
604:1960 mining disasters
539:at Wikimedia Commons
599:1960 in South Africa
589:Coal in South Africa
476:on 24 September 2015
560:26.8531°S 27.8790°E
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234:Mines and Works Act
82:Northern Free State
39:Northern Free State
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76:in the history of
565:-26.8531; 27.8790
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443:"Coalbrook"
158:Top coaling
153:Top coaling
143:top coaling
104:nationals.
90:methane gas
86:Vereeniging
578:Categories
551:27°52′44″E
548:26°51′11″S
510:: 857–868.
268:References
102:Mozambique
57:Casualties
255:in 2010.
109:boreholes
310:30 March
228:Response
125:Kragbron
35:Location
480:2 April
453:2 April
427:1 April
407:4184075
288:1 April
217:methane
121:Taaibos
98:Lesotho
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500:(PDF)
403:JSTOR
377:(PDF)
199:From
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49:Cause
482:2015
455:2015
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312:2015
290:2015
247:The
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201:1943
194:1932
187:1905
100:and
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