MOSCOW, April 3 (UPI) -- Breaches in work safety forced 33 coal mines in Russia to be closed Monday for five days, Rostekhnadzor announced.
Rostekhnadzor, the country's Federal Environmental, Engineering, and Nuclear Supervision Agency, was conducting inspections after a deadly explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine last month, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The cause of the blast that killed 108 miners is thought to be serious violations of safety regulations. Ventilation problems are thought to have caused the trapping of methane that caused the explosion. Two miners are still missing.
Several mines were also closed in West Siberia last week. Konstantin Pulikovsky, head of Rostekhnadzor, ordered that the mines be checked for compliance with technological documentation and estimated project capacity, safety regulations and changes in original project designs.
Pulikovsky also demanded that urgent measures be taken, including the suspension of production, if any safety violations are discovered at mines.
Annual coal production in the Kuznetsk Basin, where several of the safety failures are, is expected to grow 50 percent to 270 million metric tons by 2025, the region's administration said recently; mine closures may hinder that growth.
