Three miners have been found dead in a mine in Selishte, Dibra.
An engineer and two other workers were announced as missing yesterday. They were believed to be trapped somewhere underground as their personal belongings including mobile phones and clothes remained in the changing rooms.
The families of the missing notified the police saying that they’d lost contact with their loved ones.
Rescue and emergency services were notified and started the search yesterday. Unfortunately, they were found dead this morning. It appears they were suffocated by gasses present in the mine.
BIRN reported that there are several quarries and tunnels in the area used for chrome extraction. The Balgjaj mine is located around five hours from Peshkopi in a remote part of the country.
Five years ago, two miners were killed in this area due to a collapse of the area they were working in. Mining is Albania’s most dangerous job as each year there are fatal accidents and serious injuries. In the last six years, 38 miners have died and at least 152 others have been injured in chrome mines.
As Exit has reported before, while conditions in the mines leave a lot to be desired, the companies running them rarely if ever face legal action. Instead, deaths and injuries are blamed on the miners themselves.
