BHP posts second straight year of record iron ore production, beats estimates
The world's largest listed miner said iron ore output from Western Australia on a 100% basis was 76.8 million tonnes in the three months to June 30.
Working in a mine is more dangerous than being a police officer in America, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS said disasters at a coal mine in West Virginia and aboard an oil rig operated by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico again made mining one of the most dangerous American jobs in 2010, Reuters reported on Thursday:
In private mining, fatal work injuries rose 74%to 172 in 2010 from 99 a year earlier, according to the government agency’s census of deaths.
Fatality rates for mining rose to 19.9 in 2010 from 12.4 in 2009 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Policing, by contrast, is also getting more dangerous, with the number of fatalities rising by 40% from 96 in 2009 to 134 in 2010; 57 of the deaths involved highway accidents while 48 were homicides, Reuters said.
It was, indeed, an exceptionally bad year for mining and oil industry calamities in the United States.The Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and resulted in the worst oil leakage into the ocean in history, while the accident at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia caused the deaths of 29 miners and dealt mine owner Massey Energy a blow from which it would never recover. The accident resulted in several lawsuits against Massey, led to the resignation of the company’s CEO Don Blankenship, and the sale of Massey to Alpha Natural Resources.
2 Comments
TheEngineer
And how much respect and appreciation do we get? All we do is (one of) the most dangerous jobs outside of military combat, and entertainers from the NFL to Hollywood to GangstaRap make 10s of $millions some even 100s of $millions and a few have become $billionaires. We have become Rome, with ‘love’ going to whom are actually the least intellectual and brave among us. Sometimes I ponder why I make electricity for those people – the entertainment industry has so many awards ceremonies that they dish out an award at the rate of 1 every 60 seconds. There is a reason for a $15 TRILLION debt and there is a reason for 1 million of 4 million in the US dropping out of H.S. every year now – We could hire those people in the past, but not anymore – so what do you think those 1,000,000 per year will become? I’ll stick to mining, appreciating my coworkers, but also very adamantly extending my appreciation to the coppers.
Stewrae
I agree with the recent comment below my only other beef is they say. Iread this in mining magazine that there is no available workers to hire. Well I spent 8 months looking for a job with 24 yrs. Exp from ground up as a drillers helper to a superintent. It’s unfortunate now they want a degree for about any leadership job. There are alot of good hands out there, most won’t move to start at the bottom of the barrel again, or not enough pay to make it worth the move. That leads you back to greenhorns and companies don’t invest in proper training most training Dept are filled with hacks that can’t run anything or kiss asses trying to get out of work. It takes true dedication and commitment to make great people. I have personally have trained over 100 employees and have put in huge efforts to see world class results I want my employees to be proud of what they do and be confident they can work anywhere and succeed.