Between April 6 and 9, 2025, three separate mining accidents across Iran claimed the lives of at least nine workers, once again drawing attention to the country’s chronic mine safety issues.
A Series of Tragedies
The first incident occurred on April 6 in the village of Abdullah Abad in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan Province. According to local officials, two miners were injured in a mine collapse, and one succumbed to his injuries shortly afterward.
Mohammad Sadeq Amir Ashayeri, acting governor of Mahabad, told the Tasnim news agency that the deceased worker was a 50-year-old resident of the same village.
The accident occurred at the Abdullah Abad barite mine, located northeast of Mahabad, approximately two kilometers from the village. No official explanation has yet been provided for the cause of the collapse.
The second and most devastating incident took place on April 7 at the privately owned Mehmānduye mine in Damghan, Semnan Province. Seven workers lost their lives after entering a tunnel in what appears to have been a catastrophic oxygen deprivation event.
According to Etemad newspaper, the contractor, Ahmad Shekari, and his nephew, Saeed Hassani, entered the tunnel along with three Afghan workers — Tala Hossein Ebrahimi, Mojtaba Akbari, and Ali Ebrahimi. When they failed to return, two additional workers, Mehdi and Hani Gilaki, went in to investigate and also perished.
Ali Mozaffari, Director General of the Ministry of Labor’s Inspection Department, raised concerns about the legality and safety of the mine, which had reportedly been closed for months.
“It’s unclear why workers entered the site given its lack of readiness and poor technical conditions,” he said, citing limited oxygen supply and potential gas accumulation as the likely causes of death.
Citing interviews with local residents, Etemad reported that the mine’s generator had been shut off from December 2024 through the Persian New Year holiday, leaving electric ventilators non-operational. It was believed that reactivation was planned for May or June.
One of the rescue workers, identified as Mohammadian from the Eastern Alborz Complex, revealed that the first three workers were equipped with Isolated Chemical Oxygen Self-Rescuers.
However, one failed to activate, and the others had not even been opened. “By the time we arrived with oxygen tanks, the air inside the tunnel measured only 12% oxygen, and it dropped further in deeper sections,” he said.
The Third Fatality
A third fatal accident occurred on April 9 in the Ahang village mine near Bajestan in Khorasan Razavi Province. A 46-year-old worker from Torbat lost his life after a stone dislodged from the mine’s second level, at a depth of 20 meters, and struck him.
Two other workers sustained minor injuries from flying debris. Hamidreza Davarkia, governor of Bajestan, told ISNA that the mine has multiple levels, and the safety team was en route to a shelter when the incident occurred.
The mine was not named in official reports, but Davarkia noted that 43 mines are located in the area, with 39 of them currently abandoned.
A Pattern of Neglect
These incidents are part of a broader trend of poor safety practices and lack of regulatory oversight in Iran’s mining sector. In just the first half of the previous year, 20 mining accidents were recorded, resulting in 60 deaths.
A particularly deadly accident in September 2024 at the Tabas coal mine claimed the lives of over 50 workers and injured 20 more.
Miners across the country have long decried the dangerous working conditions, long hours, low pay, and inadequate health protections. “Which miner can even enjoy five years of retirement? That’s when the illnesses start,” one worker told Etemad. “We don’t have proper health insurance. They produce the most with the fewest workers.”
Since the 2000s, the proliferation of private mining operations and relaxed licensing standards have led to increased extraction activity, often at the expense of safety protocols. Despite repeated tragedies, substantial reforms to improve mine safety in Iran remain elusive.
