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Worker dies underground at mine | Worker dies underground at mine |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A worker has been killed in an accident underground at the UK's only potash mine. | A worker has been killed in an accident underground at the UK's only potash mine. |
The man, who has not been named, died at Boulby potash mine in Teesside on Thursday afternoon. | |
Few details have been released but in a statement Cleveland Potash Limited said the worker died from injuries suffered in the incident. | Few details have been released but in a statement Cleveland Potash Limited said the worker died from injuries suffered in the incident. |
The Inspectorate of Mines has been informed and an investigation into the death has begun. | The Inspectorate of Mines has been informed and an investigation into the death has begun. |
The mine, situated near the north-east coast, employs more than 800 people. | |
'Scientific research' | |
Its shaft is 1,100 metres deep, making it the UK's deepest working mine, and its tunnels reach far out under the sea. | |
The site, which opened in 1972, produces more than one million tons of potash each year and the mineral is sold for use in the manufacture of fertilizers and glass. | |
More than half a million tons of salt is also mined at the site each year and this is used in road maintenance, animal feed and sugar beet cultivation. | |
Since the early-1990s the mine has also been a centre for scientific research into dark matter, a mysterious unseen component which forms most of the universe. | |
State-of-the-art detectors have been installed in a sub-surface observatory in the hope of finding out more about the matter, which is almost impossible to detect in a laboratory on the Earth's surface. |