Accident at Mamiao Coal Mine, Sichuan, China
A small coal mine with a 600mm narrow gauge railway at work near Mamiao in Sichuan Province, China in 2009. A 'health and safety' nightmare...
This added in 2022. There are broadly two kinds of coal mines in China.
Small scale ones like this are almost entirely operating without official permission - typically the owners will be bribing local authorities to turn a blind eye to their operation. Overall they actually produce a tiny amount of coal but try as they can the central government has insufficient control to enforce their policy of closure. It's very much 'whack-a-mole' stuff.
The larger ones are usually (but not always) better regulated with a fair degree of safety measures but they are still among the most dangerous such in the world.
Пікірлер: 636
Dangerous, hard work, not even a pair of steel toe cap boot and they're cheap enough. Must be a very short life. Heart goes out to the poor buggers.
@DEATHBYFLYINGCDS
4 жыл бұрын
Indeed, they can't even afford sandals....
@DogRedful
4 жыл бұрын
Another Marxist worker’s utopia...brought to you by the CCP.
@TheFinalFrontiersman
3 жыл бұрын
@@DogRedful and I'm sure you're the same kind of person that whines just as hard about workers' safety regulations in your country
@NPC-mt1cz
3 жыл бұрын
That was my first thought seeing them running beside the ore cars
@TEMPLE7D
2 ай бұрын
Sounds like some dumb Americans talking lmao.
As bad as it looked above ground-just think what it was like in the mine itself.
@internationalsteam
8 жыл бұрын
+Ken Bird There is a clip of a better run mine on my channel too and even that is scary. Look under 'Inside a small Chinese coal mine'.
@grahambird1570
5 жыл бұрын
I bet the owner is in his Mansion in the UK !
@jodystarkey4213
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah i was thinking same thing. What it's like underground there and out by gi has Dr bills
@jodystarkey4213
4 жыл бұрын
Miner papers hammer and chisel no roof bolts. Haha no woof bowl toway.
I saw that coming half way through. How did they think an unsupported rail would work?
@LOL60345
4 жыл бұрын
i think they are trying to construct the new line with wasterock as they dump it...
@patriciomunoz2830
4 жыл бұрын
Well it worked the first time lol
@MapleXD2000
4 жыл бұрын
apparently because it worked before, its not like this coal mine was build yesterday. maybe the best solution is to just repair it once in a while
I was in OH&S and QA, managing, inspecting and accident investigation, for six years before retiring in 2012. Seeing hazards anywhere and everywhere became (and still is) a part of everyday life for me. My skin crawled as I watched this.
I've seen what happens when cables snap! And that homeboy sitting behind the spool! His days are numbered
@rosekay5031
4 жыл бұрын
CATdozerboy12 ”her”
@elonmust7470
4 жыл бұрын
There is not nearly enough weight on that cable to have near enough static energy to do anything. I've seen 3/4 of a mile of 1 1/2" cable go flying down a mountain...
Saw that one coming. The whole place is an accident waiting.
Wonder what the red banner with the Chinese writing says? Maybe something like "your Safety is our concern!"
@chowdickson
6 жыл бұрын
its a communist style slogan~ says: safe development, a good and rapid advance~
@pqhkr2002
5 жыл бұрын
@@chowdickson Yeah, these bull s**t can be seen in mine, construction site, factory, highway, street, station, meeting room, etc. The funnest thing I have ever seen is a fallen crane with a red banner writs "safe producting (安全生产)". XD
@TheRantingCabbie
5 жыл бұрын
It says "political fuck-stick up your broke ass feel good as reminder how you've been provide shit job".
@lurp6178
5 жыл бұрын
Means your safety is not our concerns so don't fuck up.
@user-uy7hm1ik5v
5 жыл бұрын
@@chowdickson this kind of coal mine usually opened by self-employed
Any time I ever think my job sucks... I think of these amazing people. The work ethic they have in a job that probably pays very little and is absolutely back breaking just blows my mind!!!!
@someasiandude4797
9 ай бұрын
They get good cardio
@TheBalconyWorkspace
3 ай бұрын
hey this isn't funny, better watch your tongue@@someasiandude4797
Thanks for this. Within a couple of years, the mine was closed like most of the similar other ones in the area.
@NeAZ
6 жыл бұрын
China is moving towards renewables.
@hankhill9416
5 жыл бұрын
How many people lost their jobs?
@idahogreen2885
5 жыл бұрын
great...so how is those guys familys getting fed now?
@lyp766
5 жыл бұрын
@@hankhill9416 0
@Mercmad
5 жыл бұрын
Instead of using their own coal,which may not be suitable for Steel smelting ,they buy millions of tons from Indonesia and Australia for peanut money. The crazy thing about it is that they're borrowing money to buy that coal. In the meantime bunch of villagers have been cast aside.
Imagine what the conditions were like inside the mine if it was like this outside,,,,,scary !!
@enthalpiaentropia7804
6 жыл бұрын
Be sure inside the mine is worst..!
I hope there's not too much tonnage on that winch. If the cable snaps, buddy is sitting right behind the spool.
@LuisReyes-cv5sj
4 жыл бұрын
Its prolly a death sentence to the worker from the boss, jus out him behind the winch because he took a 5 second break
@MrErichonda30
2 жыл бұрын
He's replaceable
Looks like some pretty ingenious use of available materials to me. Some of the track looks properly laid, other areas look like temporary track such as you would find in a logging camp - quickly set up and easily moved when the area was cleared. As far as health and safety issues go, I'd like to see the figures before commenting. If this mine was run by a family or small village, where everyone was connected to everyone else, you might be surprised at how low the numbers could be, as opposed to a big commercial mine where production takes priority over safety. Thanks for a unique video.
@internationalsteam
8 жыл бұрын
+soupbone It's by no means unique in the area, I've filmed the best part of a dozen and photographed more. Small coal mines anywhere in the world are by their nature dangerous and produce very little coal / serious accident compared to a large mine. In Sichuan, they would come and go, maybe the seam would run out, maybe they would have an accident , maybe the government would have a purge. This one didn't last much longer for whatever reason.
@sanyas789
6 жыл бұрын
soupbone ใรา ราชวาง
@justinhuffman4680
5 жыл бұрын
I don't see anything safe about their tecnique
@stap1er
5 жыл бұрын
If i looks like shit and smells like shit.. It's probably shit. No need to romanticize it because it's another country
@danielbenedict8818
4 жыл бұрын
soupbone guess you are the corporate public relations spokeman for the mine in the video - you are doing a good job explaining away the conditions, “comrade”!
i kept expecting indiana jones to swoop in and ride away on one of the carts xD
@Wildstar40
7 жыл бұрын
I was expecting Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr. from Donkey Kong Country.
@masonjade7481
5 жыл бұрын
Goggles Tigerkhan 5:30 "we walk from here".
Something that cannot be denied is that the Chinese people are VERY hard workers. Every worker shown was instantly ready to help the other worker to work as a team.
Rob, this is a very impressive videos, I like the way how you recorded this.
@lukeclarke2006
4 жыл бұрын
funk lover.. i like the way how you've written this. very good English
This is like a time capsule of how they would mine 💯 years ago
@williardyouger7257
4 жыл бұрын
Google "Nuttallburg coal mine" to see how Henry Ford transported coal in the 1870's. It wasn't like this.
@PowerTrain611
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for trying to be cool and including that emoji. You see, I'm from a younger generation and I wouldn't have understood if you had typed the actual numbers.
@midas8877
4 жыл бұрын
Bryson Grondin you forgot to mention how much rick and morty you watch
Talk about back breaking labor. Jeeze! Awesome video thoug but those poor workers must be so exhausted at the end of their shifts.
Oh boy! That's extreme of the extreme!! There are so many moments when someone could get injured!
This is what happens when you don't wear a safety vest.
@oofmcoofy6769
6 жыл бұрын
A bee? Safety vest! A gas leak? Safety vest! Somebody bout to stab you? Safety vest! The mine is on the verge of collapsing? Safety vest and usain bolt speed! World war 3 popping up? 2 safety vests! Hotel? -Safety vest- Trivago!
@HondaCivic-fs2tt
6 жыл бұрын
Don't forget PT belt!
Rob and his wife do the MOST AMAZING videos in the world. In both content and videography!
@internationalsteam
6 жыл бұрын
Thanks, we are certainly 'proud to be different'.
I see OSHA has not reached some far corners of the world...
@KandiKlover
5 жыл бұрын
I've straighter rails in an old mans backyard installed all by him over the rocks. He uses minecarts for gold sifting. This is just a joke.
@jillsmcfarland2001
5 жыл бұрын
Oshawa works where the big money is.
@keithdoan1
5 жыл бұрын
The earth is a cube
@johnsilvernale6472
5 жыл бұрын
MSHA poster child
@lurp6178
5 жыл бұрын
Msha must not
A ten year old could look at that track and know it's only a matter of time till it gives out, it's baffling that they made no attempt to fix it before it gave out. Good video Thanks
There was about a dozen times when I thought this was surely when the accident was going to happen.
最後は おばちゃん『も~何やってんの~~~』 おじさん『クビ!!!』 って言ってる
Believe it or not, this mine met the world's entire demand for coal. Needless to say, the major accident seen in the field created a spike in international coal prices. Markets were spooked from what I understand.
i had the feeling at the first shot , where they dump the coal or the other stuff over that rail with the woodsupport, would fail eventually . they had really much luck not to get injured in that incident
A valuable lesson learnt that day about the importance of ballast.
I like the single switch point track switches. Crude but effective. The wheel widths and flange depths look to be pretty forgiving of bad track on these cars.
Haste makes waste. Wonderful video, you were there at just the right moment, thanks for sharing.
as much as i feel sorry for the harsh conditions they work in I love these types of mines with all the inclines and winches feels very classic
OK I will look for it! Thanks
well that's one way to empty it at the end of the video
Health and Safety would have a field day
Imagine fitting a narrow gauge locomotive on this railroad, in some areas it can ride freely
Respect to the Workers for doing this hard work! 👏🏻
1:59 hero's entry
Those ore cart tracks are so sloppy. I can't imagine, they'd go through all that trouble to put in tracks, and not bother to put them in right.
@b2dmastersniper
3 жыл бұрын
They have probably been in the ground for 50 years
It's incredible that today in some places this is still a normal worker's day.
Glad to see noone got hurt however it would have been a tough job to retrieve the Ore cart. Great video!
I have to admit, that ending was pretty darn funny
@jimdavis581
8 жыл бұрын
+KlunkerRider Hollywood never did comedy as good as those lads.
If I remember correctly that little train car in one of the backgrounds that had a Redbox was a powered locomotive. In fixing that they could hire less people to move cars around
Just think, these people have likely never even heard of youtube let alone used the internet. And here we are commenting and summing up their entire lives from a 5 minute clip.
But it looked so stable, how could that happen?
@scallopeater43
3 жыл бұрын
That coal car had to weigh around 900 pounds, take that and put it an an unstable rail and you've got an accident waiting to happen
Big like from Romania....Great work...Thumbs UP!!!!
Extreme bit of good luck for the guy on the outside rail at the last second there... and you could pretty much see them thinking "well... crap. now what?". Maybe not a particularly massive accident, but one that surely ruined their day and would have been difficult to fix, probably seeing them docked a day's pay for it regardless of fault. And the whole video is a good reminder of just how hard some people still have to graft just to earn a crust even in the 2010s...
interesting to see old techniques
Its hard to believe that could happen on a site with so much safety.
these practices were usual in heavy industry all over the world , but normally an end tipper would be used rather than a side tipper to extend the waste dump . these men are doing a very hard dangerous job with very little . just look to north Wales to see inclines doing the same jobs and men pushing trucks up until the 1950s steam and diesel being used for longer runs
@TheMilwaukieDan
5 жыл бұрын
And for very little monetary return
@allanadam4553
5 жыл бұрын
Just watched a video of the Victoria Tube line being built under London in 1966-69 they were using same tippers on quickly built tracks just like here in China. One worker pushing a cart into an air lock, removing the rails to close the door, ring a bell on the other side of the pressure bulkhead so that another man opens the air lock full of fog, installs the two rails and pulls out the empty cart. This in 1969? Many of these British workers still wore white dress shirts, dress slacks, black dress shoes and even a hat, many looked in their late 40’s to mid 50’s
I’ll just brace these tracks up with ice cream cones, that should do it!!
@LacyLemur
5 жыл бұрын
Randy Bingham dude. The conditions are terrible and this is probably their only job. This is them working as hard as possible
Seeing that track hanging on by a thread without ballast seriously scares me
Despite horrid conditions, not one of those workers can be legitimately accused of being lazy. My gosh, such hard labor in appalling, terrible mines. Surely they deserved better.
Truck falls over :"oh gosh".
These are the type of videos I like. Industrial grunge work done by manpower. Oh, how these folks could use some 21st Century Technology . Then again this is China where Labor is as cheap as Bamboo . Excellent video Mr Dickinson. Oh yeah the last part...oops.
@trainzillamodelrailroading9905
8 жыл бұрын
21st century technology, do you mean plastic?
@chester8420
5 жыл бұрын
You act as though grunge work isn't done everywhere else in the world. Take a look at the Ag industry in the USA. If you think pushing wagons around is tough, join a watermelon harvesting crew in July in Florida or Georgia. Those men get about $10 for every 15,000 lbs of melons they handle. 1 man might pick up and or toss about 200,000lbs per day. Loading school buses 100+ degrees in the full sun at 95% humidity.
@americanminer
5 жыл бұрын
There are a few small anthracite mines in Pennsylvania that still use shovels, picks and dynamite. Coal buggies are pushed by hand and timbering is used instead of roofbolts.
very beautiful scenery
When I saw that rail “repair” at 2:30 it was a clue as to what was to come!
I wouldn't go so far as to call that an accident! Labeling it "Traditional mining in China" would have been sufficient.
"Tanto va el cántaro al agua que al final se rompe"
Great video! Greetings from Spain
Mom: The mine isn't that ghetto, just work there. The mine:
An interesting mine, but terrible when it comes to safety.
looks like one of those vintage films from early 1900's.
You knew the classic head scratch was coming😂😂
The bit with the winch is a bit like the Denniston incline.
@sweed6487
7 жыл бұрын
Varinki thank god some people know about that forgotten-ish line of the NZR
@Varinki
7 жыл бұрын
Pranz Ben Many years ago I got a video on the incline that was part of a series by Memory Line.
I want to know who laid that track, the Three Stooges ?
@Sleazball_
4 жыл бұрын
Joe M Tupac
Very interesting material
Here before it randomly comes featured again
Boy some one is in trouble now ,I wonder how they will get it back on the track.
I find it hard to believe an accident could happen at such a well designed, well equipped and efficient mining operation such as the one displayed in the video. Obviously, there has been a mistake. ☺
@Aieou472
11 ай бұрын
It's not really well designed, they just kinda cobble together whatever resources they have. That's why the rails are wack and this accident jappeded
@foxy126pl6
7 ай бұрын
@@Aieou472it was an ironic comment
In what century they did this video?
I'm going to assume those two at the end were "reassigned" by the Government and then never seen or heard from again.
At 2:40 the left rail was gone, I wonder what happened to it. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
How do they say "ooh bugger" over there?
Impressive locomotives!
Imagine putting an Express train in one of those tracks
I work in the underground coal mines in Kentucky I would love to check out this coal mine it's small these old boys got their work cut out for them
Pendolino raczej by tu nie pojechało ;) Super film !
Well, I'm from the province of Shanxi which is one of the most popular coal sources of China. What was written in the description (2022 part) is half true and half not. Larger mines which were (and are) state owned has 99.9% perfect production management system and fairly advanced production methods, and rare mining accident happen nowadays. However small mines (privately owned) are indeed 'health and safety' nightmare as written above. Since the year of 2000, the government had been working on closing these small and illigal mines, since then most of these dangerous private mines were force closed, and 20 years later, the national total mining casualty (per year) had reduced to about 3% of the original number. Hope everyone safe, may god bless you all.
you think they would dump from the other track
who would have guessed that it wont hold for ever?
@bellowphone
4 жыл бұрын
The previous dumps were made just this side of the tipping point.
Tá igual as estradas do Brasil!
Its weird, things seemed so safe prior to the accident
What happened to the gravel under the track, was it a mud slide or just erosion?
@internationalsteam
7 жыл бұрын
As I recall the flat area outside the mine was basically spoil from the mine which seemed to have just been dumped there. While new spoil now went up the incline, production coal was being dumped as shown after passing the weigh bridge so it went down to a hopper where it would be loaded into a road truck. There is a lot of rain in this area and I guess it had eroded the poorly prepared slope. As can be seen earlier it was an accident waiting to happen, the track could take the weight of an empty wagon but not a full one...
No PPE why???
What century is this.
I wonder if the cost of that wagon was deducted from their wages?
Never saw that coming
Well that wasn't very bright of them at the end of that video, was it?
Wow....this mine had to be running this way for at least a 100 yrs or more...real blood, sweat and tears
Just love the safety Crocs they wear...
Wow, that was pretty wild and who couldn't see and accident happening like at the end
A conveyor belt would be a lot more sufficient. I can’t believe they still mine like this
What happened at the end was liable to happen any time!
where's the accident?
Will make a scale working model of this in my yard. Looks great. I want one.
I would have thought that tracks without support would break at the end of the video.
How do you get the cart back up there? It’s an “Ancient Chinese Secret!”
At the end. They didnt see that coming?
オチまで長いけど、最高に面白いw
"Safety is number 1 priority "
Very hard work in what looks like high heat and 100 percent humidity.