By Ramon Curto, Ricard Gracia, David Jimenez, Francisco J. Moya and Alex R. Fischer
three people have died this thursday at mine of Cabanasses of Suria after having been crushed due to the detachment of a large slab inside the gallery. The three deceased are geologists (two of them, UPC postgraduate students in Manresa) and have lost their lives when they were in an area located 900 meters deep, where the potash that is in the plant. The victims are from Sant Joan de Vilatorrada, Alicante and Colombia.
AREA
The Súria mine has its origins about 40 million years ago, in the Eocene. In that period, the waters of the Cantabrian Sea reached what is now the Bages region and extended to Navarra. When the inland sea began to evaporate, the potash, salt and other salts remained at the bottom and later the land folded, leaving this material below the surface and generating the Catalan potassic basin.
THE PROPERTY
The mine, owned by the company ICL Iberia Suria & Sallent (the only company producing potassium salts in Spain and belonging to the Israeli firm ICL), was subjected to an inspection three weeks ago and that control was closed without any file. Of the three workers who died, two were direct ICL staff and the other was an employee of a subcontractor.