The blast occurred in one of the mine’s tunnels 165 feet under ground as the night shift crew arrived for work at 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

Although collapsed rock initially trapped some of the miners, the survivors were evacuated by late Sunday morning, said Zhanibek Sadykanov, a spokesman for the administration in the region. Of the 64 survivors, three were injured, one of whom remains in serious condition, Sadykanov said.

Gazeta, an internet newspaper in Kazakhstan, reported that the explosion at the Shakhtinskaya mine was caused by a sudden, large discharge of methane gas.

The mine, located near the city of Karaganda, belongs to Kazakhstan’s steel giant Ispat-Karmet, which is part of LNM Holding NV, owned by Indian-born, London-based magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

This year, at least eight other people have died in mining accidents in the central industrial region of Karaganda, where the mine is located.

According to various news reports, mine explosions causing heavy casualties are less common in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan than they are in Russia and Ukraine.

About 4,000 people have died in Ukrainian mines since the republic declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Bloomberg news service reported July 22.

In Russia, an explosion following a buildup of methane gas occurred last April in the Siberian Taizhina pit killing 47 of the 53 miners working underground at the time. According to the Independent Coal Miners’ Union, 68 workers were killed on the job in Russian mines in 2002, and 98 in 2001.

In the United States, the Mine Safety and Heath Administration’s website reports 49 mine deaths so far this year.  
 
 
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