A MINER died in a gas blast in Europe’s deepest mine in one of the worst incidents its chief geologist had seen, an inquest heard.

John Anderson - known as Richie - was cutting the rock face in a high-risk part of Boulby Potash mine in east Cleveland when there was a gas blowout which caused him fatal injuries.

Chief geologist Peter Eadey, who has now retired, said: “It was the largest gas outburst I have encountered in my career.”

He said Mr Anderson, 56, from Easington, near Saltburn, who he had known for 30 years, was a competent, reliable and enthusiastic miner who loved his job.

But at the time of his death, on June 16 last year, he was working in an area of the mine classed as high risk for gas outbursts - which was described as not an explosion, but rock debris being ejected at high speed.

The blowout which killed Mr Anderson involved over 1,000 tonnes of rock and left a 15-metre cavity in the rock face.

There had been 25 previous smaller gas outbursts in that part of the mine, leading to the area being classed as high risk, although this amount of incidents was not uncommon, workers said.

Rob Jones, who was working alongside Mr Anderson on the day of the accident, was in the bait room taking his break when the gas alarms sounded, then “everything went silent”.

He said: “The curtain blew right over us all and was sucked back. The curtain sometimes lifts a little when there was a gas blowout but not like this at all. I immediately thought there had been a big gas blowout.”

He said when they reached the mining machine that day there was a large piece of rock on it from an outburst when noone had been present, between shifts.

Face miners were always instructed to stand at least 20 metres away from the rock face, behind the 13.5 metre-long, remote controlled mining machine.

But James Robinson, barrister acting on behalf of the family, asked if workers had to rely on their own judgement of the distance in the darkness and sometimes dusty mine.

The inquest heard that since Mr Anderson’s death safety procedures had been tightened even further with new fluorescent marker poles showing where they needed to stand in the mine, almost a mile underground.

  • The three-day inquest, at Teesside Coroners Court, continues.