Post date: Aug 27, 2012 2:3:49 PM
CAGLIARI, SARDINIA, ITALY (AUGUST 27, 2012) (SKY ITALIA) - Up to 30 Sardinian miners armed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives barricaded themselves nearly 400 metres underground on Monday (August 27) in Italy's only coal mine to put pressure on the Rome government to protect its survival.
Around 30 Sardinian miners armed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives have barricaded themselves nearly 400 metres underground in Italy's only coal mine to put pressure on the government to protect its survival.
The miners from a 460-strong workforce seized 350 kilos of company explosives and locked themselves inside the Carbosulcis mine west of Cagliari overnight on Sunday, one of them said, ahead of a government meeting this week to discuss the pit's future.
"I think anyone would have protested like us, anyone who is close to loosing their job is prepared to do anything' said a female protesting miner underground.
"It is really serious, everything is closing in this country, Alcoa, Euroallumina and us, it feels like the end of the world" she said.
The miners want the mine to be diversified into a combined mining and carbon capture site to protect its future. Carbon capture is the storing of polluting emissions underground to mitigate global warming.
Carbosulcis was estimated to have 600 million metric tonnes of coal reserves in 2006 but has struggled to stay productive. It was previously occupied in 1984, 1993 and 1995, when protesting workers stayed in a tunnel for 100 days.