Miners make decent money. That's why people still do it.

What they weredoing was 'drift mining'. You go down at a gradient, rather than straight down. The particular type of coal in that mine is very sought after, but acessing it is difficult. It is small and cramped and heavy machinery can't get through.

The problem is that some of the older sections of mine are flooded. The drift mining is supposed to take account of that and avoid going near the older sections of mine, but it seems they got too close to it. Not sure why.

All of them have now been found dead. The community is really suffering. Must be such a shock to the system to have this old foe return.

I don't like to ask for evidence, especially from a friend, but my understanding is that these day mining is not well paid. It depends purely on the price of coal, and that is often far cheaper to import. So that the danger of the job does not match the remuneration in this country, and therefore those who work in mines are only doing so because they have no other recourse.

As I say, this is an impression from different sources. If you can show otherwise I will hold my hands up.

It was just what was said in the news report last night. This is a particularly sought after coal.

I can't specifically find proof that miners are well paid, but that's what was said on the news. Not brilliantly well-paid, they're not raking it in, but it offers a decent wage. I don't think it's like it used to be.

That'll do for me, ta.
I couldn't find any proof either way after all.
I'm probably going on things written by Paul Theroux and George Orwell. I so have my finger on the pulse.

Mine workers here do get good money, specialists (like a mining engineer) get six figure salaries. The risks are by historical standards low. The conditions are the drag: fly-in fly-out, maybe 12 straight days of 12 hour shifts followed by a block of days off, in some stinking hot middle of nowhere mining camp. The work is still difficult, unpleasant and never 100% safe. Oh and do you remember that giant crocodile and drain full of snakes...?

My friend Jim was a miner for almost 20 years. He grew up in a Colorado coal mining town and he said kids who didn't go to college just went into the mines. It was taken for granted that this was what a young man in that society would do. He told me that back in the day, the mines were unionized and miners made very good money.

He also mentioned that men were killed in the mines all the time - not always by cave-ins, but by a host of accidents that occurred because the safety precautions were often ignored by the supervisors.

Apparently, now miners still make decent money, but the unions are being broken so pay suffers and safety suffers even more. My friend finally quit because of an injury that prevented him from going back down into the shafts.