TIRANA, Feb. 15 – A miner was found dead at the Munelle mine in northern Albania after a partial cave in of the gallery he was working in, authorities said.
An investigation is ongoing to find the reasons behind the cave-in, police said in a statement.
The death, the last in a series, has caused political debate on the safety of mining operations in the country.
The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, said in statement the government was to blame for such incidents as the mines were not being properly regulated.
The governing Socialists responded in kind saying that the Democrats should not forget that it was the previous government that had issued 1,200 licenses for individuals working at the mines without the proper security conditions.
The Socialist government has cancelled 200 licenses so far as is continuing to check others, it said. They also deleted from the registers some 300 licenses that were not in use.
Albania’s mining sector is very dangerous because of the many illegal operations that do not follow any state regulations at all.
