Yet another miner has been injured in the galleries of the Albchrome mines in Bulqiza, on Wednesday.
The Bulqiza United Miners’ Union (SMBB) announced that the 31-year-old miner who was injured is called Edi Beka. He was injured while working in the gallery and was sent to hospital in Tirana by helicopter.
A source from Bulqiza hospital told BIRN that the injured man had chest injuries and was suspected of having broken ribs.
Police of Dibra announced that the event took place around 11:05 but did not disclose in which gallery the accident took place.
SMBB states that “the police statement does not specify in which mine and company this accident occurred”.
“While the Albchrome company again blames the miner for the accident”, the union of miners added.
The union demanded the relevant institutions “to investigate into the accident and the technical safety conditions”. They added that this is not a rare or isolated case.
AlbChrome company is owned by Saimir Mane, part of the Balfin group and is the largest concessionaire in the Bulqiza area.
The company has often placed the blame on the miners for negligence, in some cases eliciting letters of admission of fault.
“The wheel loader that was maneuvering inside the mine has damaged the steel beams structure, in the area of Qafë Buallit. “As a result of this negligence, the wheel loader operator E.B was injured”, it is said in the reaction of Albchrome.
This is the seventh accident that has happened in this gallery.
On February 24, miner Fiqiri Karaj lost his life in a work accident in the mines of Zone D in Bulqiza.
Despite the deaths of many miners in the Bulqiza chrome mines, no manager or owner of them has been prosecuted in the last three years.
Institutional statistics are viewed with suspicion by occupational safety and rights experts, who say accidents with minor consequences are neither reported nor properly investigated.
