8 December 1981: No. 21 Mine explosion near Whitwell, Tennessee. 13 coal miners died as a result of the explosion. January 18, 1984: Miike coal mine A fire in a mine owned by Mitsui Mining Company near Ōmuta, Fukuoka resulted in 83 deaths and an additional 13 injuries. July 19, 1985: Val di Stava dam collapse took place in the village of Stava, near Tesero, Italy, when two tailings dams failed that had been used for sedimenting the mud from the nearby Prestavel mine. It resulted in one of Italy's worst disasters, killing 268 people, destroying 63 buildings, and demolishing eight bridges. 16 September 1986 Kinross Mining disaster. In South Africa an underground fire killed 177 people. 2 June 1988 in Borken, Hesse. A lignite mine devastated by an explosion, 57 fatalities. May 9, 1992: Westray Mine, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. 26 killed in a methane and coal dust explosion. May 9, 1993: Nambija mine disaster, Nambija, Ecuador. Approximately 300 people were killed in a landslide August 28, 1994: Rajpura Dariba Mine VRM disaster, Dariba, Udaipur, India: This incident occurred due to flooding of the slurry from a mined VRM Underground mining hard rock stop, where cemented fill could not settle and its plug failed. This slurry accumulated in the plugged shaft, which could not take the load and subsequently failed. All of the material fell in the shaft, resulting in the drowning deaths of 63 people working below. 10 May 1995 Vaal Reefs, South Africa; a locomotive fell down a lift shaft and landed on a cage, causing the deaths of 104 people. 21st century January 30, 2000: Baia Mare cyanide spill took place in Baia Mare, Romania. The accident, called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl, was a release of 100,000 tons of cyanide-contaminated water by an Aurul mining company when a reservoir broke, releasing its waters into the rivers Someş, Tisza and Danube. Although no human fatalities were reported, the leak killed up to 80% of aquatic life of some of the affected rivers. October 11, 2000: 2000 Martin County coal slurry spill occurred after midnight when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Martin County, Kentucky, broke into an abandoned underground mine below. The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306 million US gallons (1.16 million cubic metres; 1.16 billion litres) of slurry down two