Number of miners in Nevada being hurt underground rises

[NVMojo]

and we have some d-e-e-p mojo underground gold mines in Nevada ...

January 5, 2006

A quarter of all injuries to Nevada miners in 2004 came in underground mines, the highest percentage in the past 22 years, the latest federal safety figures show.

A third of the 76 fatalities in Nevada mines between 1983 and 2004 came in underground mines, an analysis of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health figures shows.

As far as injuries serious enough for the worker to lose time on the job, as few as about 1 in 50 were from Nevada underground mines in the mid-1980s, but that climbed to more than 1 in 5 in this decade.

The increase in injuries reflects a growing Nevada work force in underground mines, said Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association.

"Back in the mid-'80s, there was virtually no underground mining in Nevada -- very little," Fields said Wednesday as West Virginia dealt with a deadly coal mining disaster. "Today, probably 25 percent of Nevada's gold is derived from underground mines."

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http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060105/NEWS07/601050355/1002/NEWS