NOVOSIBIRSK/NOVOKUZNETSK, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - An inquiry commission implicated 35 officials and cited a short circuit as the cause of a mine explosion in West Siberia, which killed 39 people May 24.
The Russian technological safety regulator's report named Georgy Lavrik, director general of the Yuzhkuzbassugol company, the mine owner, among those to blame for the accident at the Yubileinaya mine. The commission also estimated the economic damage caused by the explosion at $6.5 million.
But the head of the technological regulator, Konstantin Pulikovsky, said the main cause of the blast was poor safety systems. "It was the imperfect energy and gas safety system, it should have worked but didn't," Pulikovsky said.
He added his service had banned all Russian mines from using explosion suppression systems identical to the one that had been installed at the Yubileinaya mine, from July 15.
Governor lawsuit
Aman Tuleyev, the 16-year governor of the Kemerovo Region where the accident took place, said Friday he was suing Pulikovsky for libel.
"I have filed a suit against Pulikovsky for saying the governor was aware of what was happening at the mine," Tuleyev said. "I think it is libel."
Pulikovsky said it was Tuleyev's right to go to court, and added he would not file a counter lawsuit. "I hope the court decision will be fair," he said.
Tuleyev, a member of the inquiry commission, has refused to sign the inquiry conclusions. He put the blame on technological watchdog officials who had endorsed the design of the mine.
"I consider the Federal Service for the Oversight of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management to blame," the 63-year-old governor said, adding the faulty design had led to methane accumulation.
Andrei Malakhov, the regional head of the local technological safety regulator, concurred with Tuleyev, and said the inquiry was biased. He announced his resignation Thursday.
Mine ownership transfer
The head of the company that owns the mine said the deal to sell Yuzhkuzbassugol's shares to Evraz Group, a leading Russian steel and mining group, to make its ownership 100% had not yet been concluded. The deal was announced in the wake of the mine blast as a way to modernize the mine and prevent accidents in the future.
"The deal is in progress, and Yuzhkuzbassugol's board of directors will meet late next week," Georgy Lavrik, implicated in the inquiry report, said, adding that about 150 million rubles ($6 million) had been paid in compensation to the victims' families.
Evraz already holds a 50% stake in the company and controls 12 mines in the region. Yuzhkuzbassugol, the country's largest underground coal mining company, also owns another mine, Ulyanovskaya, in the Kemerovo Region, where a methane blast killed 110 people March 19.
Coal production
A Yuzhkuzbassugol official, Sergei Gorbatov, said coal production at the Yubileinaya mine could resume in July. "Production at the section hit by the accident will be closed, but production at another section will begin in July," he said.
The mine has estimated reserves of 12-13 million tons of coal, which could last 12 years.
Gorbatov also said the other mine, Ulyanovskaya, would be ready for expert inspection next week and production there could be resumed in July, given expert approval.
