Wankie

The final death toll is expected to exceed 430, making Wankie the fifth worst coalmining disaster in history.

The strike had been called at Wankie colliery, a forest-girt slum that taps Southern Rhodesia's massive coal reserves �more than 4 billion tons, mined in a 40-ft. seam.

Owned by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, whose vast copper mines in Northern Rhodesia are fueled by Southern Rhodesian coal, Wankie pays white miners at least $250 a month and its Negro miners an average in cash of $6.60 a month.

No coal from Wankie meant crisis for all Rhodesia.

Six hundred white soldiers raced to Wankie.