MineArchiveDisasters
Explosions, floods, collapses and other major incidents at UK mines — including significant post-closure incidents in abandoned workings. Each record is researched to the same standard as a mine or terminology entry, not just a casualty count.
3 disasters in the 1990s, of 505.
| Disaster | Date | Type | Region | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheal Jane acid mine water discharge, 1992 An estimated 50,000 m³ of acidic mine water burst from the flooding, abandoned Wheal Jane workings and turned the Carnon River and Fal estuary ochre-yellow — one of the most notorious mine-water pollution incidents in British history, and one still being actively treated more than three decades later. |
13 January 1992 | Flooding / Inundation | Cornwall | — |
| Bilsthorpe Colliery Roof Collapse (1993) A roof collapse caused by unsafe roof bolting killed three men nearly 2,000 feet underground as they drove a tunnel toward a new coal seam; an under-manager was posthumously awarded the George Medal for warning his colleagues. |
18 August 1993 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Nottinghamshire | 3 |
| Eckington Mine Roof Fall In 1998 part of the roof collapsed at Eckington drift mine in Derbyshire, about 800 metres in from the entrance, killing two miners and injuring a third. The mine, opened only five years earlier and worked by the pillar and stall method, had had a good safety record until then. It continued in production afterwards and did not close until January 2019. |
June 1998 | Collapse / Roof Fall | Derbyshire | 2 |