Engineer and director of the Pioneer mine sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for the deaths of 13 miners

In the Amur Region, Biryukov A.V. and Chernikov D.Y., Managing Director and chief engineer of the Pioneer mine, were sentenced to 5.5 years in prison due to the deaths of 13 mine workers. This was announced on August 8 by the press service of the courts in the Amur region in its Telegram channel.

"On March 18, 2024, an accident occurred at JSC Pokrovsky Mine. The destruction of the security pillar under the bowl of the S-V Bakhmut 2 quarry caused a breakthrough of flooded sand and clay masses into underground workings. <...> This led to the death of 13 miners," the report said.

As noted in the department, in addition to human casualties, the accident caused material damage in excess of 410 million rubles.

A criminal case was opened on this fact under Part 3 of Article 217 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of industrial safety requirements of hazardous production facilities, resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence"). The defendants in the case admitted their guilt.

The collapse at the Pioneer mine in the Amur region, part of JSC Pokrovsky Mine, occurred on March 18. There were 13 people under the rubble, with whom communication was lost. A criminal case was initiated under Article 216 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of safety requirements during work"). Alexey Biryukov, the managing director of Pioneer, was detained and charged, as well as the mine's chief engineer.

On April 1, the rescue operation was terminated, as there was still a risk of rock collapse, flooding in underground workings and collapse of the side of the quarry in the amount of more than 200 thousand cubic meters, which would jeopardize the safety of rescuers and Pioneer employees.

The Governor of the Amur Region, Vasily Orlov, assured that the families of the victims would receive financial assistance from the regional government's reserve fund. The press service of the Pokrovsky Mine enterprise, to which the mine belongs, stated that the relatives of the miners will receive payments in the amount of their annual earnings.

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