According to the Catalan regional police, the accident took place shortly before 9 a.m. (Paris time) when a “collapse” occurred in a gallery of the mine. The regional police had indicated that they had deployed specialized units to participate in the rescue, including a canine unit, while the regional emergency services had specified, for their part, that they had sent two medical helicopters and a team of psychologists to the scene.
This potash mine belongs to ICL Iberia, the Spanish subsidiary of the Israeli group ICL. On its website, this company based in Suria, a town about 80 km north-west of Barcelona, says it employs 1,100 people and is “the only company producing potassium salts in Spain”. It has two mines in this area, “that represent”according to her, “one of the most important potash reserves in Western Europe”.
Two miners died in an accident at the same Suria mine in December 2013 following the collapse of the roof of a gallery, according to local media.