MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's safety regulator has given permission for operations to resume at a mine in Siberia, where 108 miners died in an explosion in March, Yuzhkuzbassugol, the mine owner said Wednesday.
On March 19, a methane explosion ripped through the Ulyanovskaya mine in Novokuznetsk, the largest coal-producing center in the Kemerovo Region. The investigation findings stated that the cause of the blast was deliberate tampering with the mine's safety system.
"On September 5, experts from the industrial safety watchdog (Rostekhnadzor) signed an act to allow the Ulyanovskaya mine to resume operations," Yuzhkuzbassugol said in a statement.
The commission of experts said the Ulyanovskaya mine complied with all health and safety requirements and was ready to resume operations in the near future.
This year Russia has seen a series of tragedies at coal mines. Two explosions at the Ulyanovskaya, the worst in Russia for 75 years, and Yubileinaya mines in the Kemerovo Region in March and May killed a total of 150 people. And two people were killed by falling rocks at another coal mine in the Kemerovo Region in mid July.
Eleven died in a coal pit explosion in the Komsomolskaya mine in the arctic town of Vorkuta, North Urals, on June 25.
