Occupational Safety & Health · Sectors

Safety in mining and quarrying

Chiatura, Tkibuli and the sector that first exposed the cost of abolishing inspection.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

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Overview

Mining has the highest fatal accident rate of any sector in the EU (8.7 per 100,000 in 2024, Eurostat) and was the sector in which Georgia's deregulation of 2006 had the most visible consequences. Human Rights Watch documented working conditions in the Chiatura manganese mines and the Tkibuli coal mines in its 2019 report "No Year Without Deaths", based on 80 interviews, and reported that workplace deaths across Georgia had risen by 74% in 2007–2017 after the inspectorate was abolished (HRW, 2019, via RFE/RL).

Key figures

10 · 156

Deaths and injuries in mines and quarries, 2019–2023

Fair Labour Platform data (2024)

9 → 80

Mining inspections, 2020 → 2022

Social Justice Center et al. (2023)

8.7

EU-27 fatal rate per 100,000 in mining and quarrying, 2024

Eurostat

No. 176

ILO Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 — not ratified by Georgia

ILO NORMLEX

What the evidence shows

Tkibuli and Chiatura are among the locations civil society organisations identify as high-risk workplaces, with Zestaponi and Rustavi (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).
Mining inspections rose from 9 in 2020 to 22 in 2021 and 80 in 2022 (Social Justice Center et al., 2023, citing Labour Inspection Office reports).
In 2019 the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation called for ratification of Convention No. 176 on safety and health in mines, alongside No. 183 and No. 156 (ILO ACTRAV, 2019).
The Chiatura miners' protest of June 2023 raised wages and safety (Social Justice Center et al., 2023).

Findings are as reported by the organisations named; the mining companies concerned may hold different views, and GILS offers a right of reply.

Standards

Benchmarks
Instrument	Content	Georgia
ILO Convention No. 176 (1995)	Safety and health in mines: employer duties, workers' rights, inspection	Not ratified
ILO Convention No. 155 (1981)	General OSH framework	Not ratified
EU Directive 92/104/EEC	Minimum requirements for surface and underground mineral-extracting industries	EU benchmark
Organic Law on Occupational Safety (2019)	National framework, including hazardous work	In force

What employers must do

The duties below summarise what Georgian law requires and what the EU and ILO benchmarks add; "benchmark" marks instruments Georgia has not yet adopted. For a full self-assessment with an action plan, use the GILS Risk Assessment Checklist.

Designate an accredited safety specialist and keep a written risk assessment covering ground stability, ventilation, explosives, machinery and dust
Basis: Organic Law on Occupational Safety (2019)
Provide ventilation, dust control and respiratory protection against silica, coal and manganese dust; conduct health surveillance for pneumoconiosis
Basis: ILO Convention No. 176 (benchmark); EU Directive 92/104/EEC (benchmark)
Maintain emergency and rescue arrangements, escape routes and self-rescuers underground
Basis: ILO Convention No. 176 (benchmark)
Control noise and vibration; provide hearing protection and limit exposure
Basis: EU Directives 2003/10/EC and 2002/44/EC (benchmarks)
Keep working hours and night work within the Labour Code and provide rest between shifts
Basis: Labour Code of Georgia
Report every accident and cooperate with inspection; record near misses
Basis: Organic Law on Occupational Safety (2019); ILO Protocol of 2002

This summary is general information, not legal advice; the written risk assessment and the accredited safety specialist remain the legal requirements under the Organic Law on Occupational Safety.

Public health perspective (WHO)

Mining is the sector where occupational disease is best documented internationally — pneumoconiosis, silicosis, noise-induced hearing loss, musculoskeletal disorders — and the ILO/WHO International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses is the diagnostic standard. Georgia publishes no occupational disease data for Chiatura or Tkibuli; the health sector, not the inspectorate, would be the source. Workers' health: the public health perspective.

Data gaps

Geostat does not publish mining employment separately in the labour force tables, so no national fatal rate can be calculated.
No published data on occupational disease among miners (silicosis, pneumoconiosis, hearing loss).

Sources

RFE/RL (2019). Rights group: lax regulation puts Georgian miners at risk (on HRW, 2019). config-exception.rferl.mobi
RFE/RL (2019). Rights group: lax regulation puts Georgian miners at risk (on HRW, 2019). rferl.org
Georgia Fair Labour Platform (2024). Workplace Death & Injury Statistics (archived copy). web.archive.org
Social Justice Center et al. (2023). Submission to the UN CESCR (archived copy). web.archive.org
ILO ACTRAV (2019). Towards ratification of ILO Conventions in Georgia. www.ilo.org
Eurostat. Fatal accidents at work by NACE activity (hsw_n2_02). ec.europa.eu

Figures are from the GILS Evidence Register and the official sources shown. GILS is independent of government, trade unions, employers' organisations and the ILO.