A 35-year-old miner died after apparently a blasting operation went wrong in a coal mine in Tkibuli, western Georgia, on September 9.

A senior executive from coal mine operator company, Saknakhshiri, in charge of safety, said the incident was caused due to violation of procedures and that the details would be known after the full investigation.

Tamaz Dolaberidze, president of metallurgical, mining, chemical industry workers trade union, told Civil.ge that according to preliminary information the miner died apparently of improperly carried out underground blast operation. He said the miner was not in a safe place when the blast occurred.
 
This is the fourth fatal incident in the Tkibuli mine over past eighteen months.

Nine miners died in three separate explosions in the same mine in a period between March, 2010 and January, 2011; explosions were attributed to methane gas leak.

Coal mine in Tkibuli is operated by Saknakhshiri, a daughter company of Georgian Industrial Group, a conglomerate affiliated to lawmaker from the ruling party, Davit Bezhuashvili - a brother of Gela Bezhuashvili, chief of the Georgian intelligence service.