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21/01/1960 Coalbrook mining disaster

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South African Mining Disaster (1960)

On the 21st January 1960, the worst mining disaster occured in Coalbrook coal mine of Clydesdale Colliery in South Africa. 1000 miners were in the mine at the time and 435 died after being trapped. The cause of the accident was cascading pillar failure where a few pillars fail initially and this increases the load on the adjacent pillars causing them to fail.