Pike River joins list of mining tragedies

The deaths of 29 miners in the Pike River Coal mine eclipsed the death toll from the 1967 Strongman mine disaster, but it was not the among deadliest New Zealand mining disasters.
Before the West Coast tragedy, New Zealand had seen its share of mine disasters, with 181 people killed since 1896.
The worst single event was in 1896 at the Brunner mine, about 25km from Pike River and essentially mining the same coal block, where 65 miners were killed in New Zealand's worst industrial accident.
It was believed an unauthorised detonating of a charge in an abandoned section of the mine -- the most likely cause -- set off a methane gas explosion, killing half the underground workforce.
Fifty-three of the miners were buried at Stillwater Cemetery, 33 in the one grave.
A commission of inquiry found management of the mine could not be blamed, and the explosion had been the result of a charge placed the wrong way around, in a part of the mine where there should have been no one working.
In 1967, at the Strongman mine, northeast of Greymouth, an explosion killed 19 miners. There were 240 men working in the mine at the time, but a wet patch 140m down the tunnel put out the fireball from the explosion.
A memorial to the dead men, in perhaps a sign of ignorance of the region's history, was vandalised this month.
Other mining disasters which claimed dozens of lives include Kaitangata, 10km southeast of Balclutha, where in 1879, 34 men and boys died in an explosion caused by candles in an area known for firedamp -- methane gas given off by coal.
At Ralph's mine, near Huntly, in 1914, 43 miners were killed when a miner's naked light ignited firedamp.
At the Dobson mine, also near Greymouth, in 1926, an explosion killed nine men and in 1939, at the Glen Afton mine near Huntly, 11 men were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide.
In 2006 at Black Reef Mine, near Greymouth, Robert McGowan, 39, drowned when he hit flooded mine workings.
Traditional mining is highly dangerous -- rock falls, explosions and accidents involving equipment were the most frequent causes of deaths in the New Zealand mining industry when it started out in the 1840s.
At Denniston, near Westport, in the 10 years from 1881 to 1891 there were 10 deaths and 35 serious injuries. Of the 141 men killed nationwide between 1900 and 1914, 98 were individual deaths.
Following the Kaitangata disaster in 1879, the Mines Department was given power to inspect mines but 40 years later inspections were sporadic and depended on a strong union to be effective.
Increased opencast mining brought greater levels of safety and by the early 21st century, the mining industry had brought in its own codes of practice and there was regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour.
According to West Coast historian Brian Wood, who has written several books on mining, most of the nation's serious accidents have occurred in coal mines, which are different to hard-rock mines.
``You've had your quartz-mining areas in Thames, Waihi and Reefton, but there's not been a major entrapment of miners underground in any of those mines,'' he said.
The world's worst mining disaster saw 1572 miners killed in an explosion at Honkeiko coal mine in China in 1942. In 1906 at the Courrieres mine in northern France 1099 lives were lost, while the worst mining accident in American history was caused by 1907 underground explosion in Monongah, West Virginia which killed 362 miners.
Australia's worst mining catastrophe was the 1906 Mt Kembla Mining Disaster, where 96 men and boys were killed in an explosion.
This year, in China 130 miners have been killed in four separate mine accidents. In April in the United States, 29 miners were kill in an underground explosion at a West Virginia mine and in May at least 66 miners died after underground blasts at the Raspadskaya mine in Russia.
In June, more than 70 miners were killed after a gas explosion at a coal mine in Colombia.