“Five Miners Killed in Blast at Chinese Coal Mine in Laos”, 14 May 2020

Five miners were killed and another left seriously injured in an explosion May 10 at a Chinese coal mine in the Ta Oy district of Saravane province in southern Laos, sources told RFA…

Two of those killed in the blast were Lao, with the other three and the injured worker all Chinese, a district official told RFA’s Lao Service…

“They said the miners had brought the explosives to the target area for blasting, but they don’t know what happened after that. There may have been a malfunction of some kind. The rocks exploded, trapping the men and causing their deaths,” he said…

… Ta Oy district governor Boun Neuang Luang Kham Tai told a Lao radio station in an interview… adding that the bodies of the dead Chinese miners were taken to managers at the coal mine for handling.

“We couldn’t discuss more than this because of the language barrier between us and the injured man and company officials,” he said…

… Lao authorities are conducting an investigation into the cause of the accident so that compensation can be claimed from the Chinese company, he said.

A district villager who witnessed the incident told RFA that he wants the coal mine now to put stronger measures in place to protect the safety and lives of its workers and to provide fair compensation to the families who lost their loved ones…

The Chinese company involved in the blast had been operating in Ta Oy since 2012, though how long they have held a concession from the Lao government to work there is still unclear, one district official told RFA…

“The company has hired many workers to excavate coal and transport rocks by truck, and most of the tasks assigned to these men are very dangerous,” he added…