Feature Stories
‘We all have bronchitis’ — the blackened lungs of Georgia’s coal miners
The owners of the coal mines in the Georgian mining town of Tkibuli deny that any employees have job-related illnesses. The miners themselves tell a different story. On 21 July 2020, Amiran Bochorishvili, a 65-year-old miner in Tkibuli, marched into the office of the director of the Mindeli Mine and cut open his wrist. After 40 years working 300 metres underground, the mining company, Saknakhshiri, attempted to transfer Bochorishvili to surface duties, cutting his salary from around ₾900 ($
