Mexico Congress blames mining company for disaster

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mining company Grupo Mexico is largely to blame for an explosion that killed 65 men in A northern Mexican coal pit last year, a Congressional commission said on Friday.

Negligence on the part of Grupo Mexico, one of the world's top copper producers, allowed a build-up of methane gas and coal dust which exploded deep in the shaft and caused most of the mine to collapse, the commission said in a report on the accident.

The lawmakers also said blame for the February 2006 explosion was shared by government labor officials and the mineworkers union, who allowed work to carry on despite evident danger.

In April, a manslaughter trial of Grupo Mexico executives ended without prison sentences after one of the defendants paid damages of about $16,500 to each of the victims' families.

In Friday's report, the congressional commission recommended officials and company executives linked to the explosion be removed form their posts and banned from working in the industry.

Only two bodies have been recovered since the blast. Industrial Minera Mexico, the Grupo Mexico subsidiary that ran the mine, abandoned the search because of unstable conditions in the mine.

Grupo Mexico says it paid each family a one-off sum of close to $70,000 after the accident, plus several monthly payments.