Some 141 miners are trapped underground while at least 25 others have been killed by a gas explosion in a state-owned coal mine in Shaanxi Province.

A total of 293 miners were working at the Chejiashan Coalmine when the explosion happened some 8 kilometres underground in the mine at around 7:20AM on 28 November. The mine is under the jurisdiction of the Tongchuan City Coal Mining Bureau. Forty-five workers were taken to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning, while 11 were in critical condition.

An official at the Shaanxi coal mine safety bureau said that “the rescue effort has been extremely difficult due to large concentrations of carbon monoxide” and the hope of saving the trapped miners alive is fading.

State-run newspapers said that a fire broke out at the same mine a week before the accident occurred, but despite miners’ concerns, they were ordered to continue working or face fines and other punishment.

“They [the mine owners] often let miners go down to the shaft even when the gas density is unsafe,” Tang Longqing, a 46-year-old miner there, said.

Another worker, Wang Pingshan, said he was lucky to have been on sick leave following a leg injury, and therefore he was not in the pits while the accident occurred. But he said: “My brother is still down there. He was working the late shift and was just about to get off work, but the mine managers make people work overtime all the time.”

China’s accident-plagued coalmines have claimed 4,153 lives in the first nine months of this year, according to statistics issued by the State Administration of Work Safety. An explosion in the Daping Coalmine in Henan Province on 20 October killed 148 miners – the deadliest single mining disaster so far this year.

Shortly after the accident occurred, President Hu Jintao gave instructions to local government officials, urging them to “employ all effective means” to save the trapped miners. Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Huang Ju also ordered rescuers to minimize the number of casualties.

The Chenjiashan Coalmine is capable of producing 2.3 million tons of coal per year. A gas explosion killed 38 miners at the same mine in April 2001.

In a separate report, 16 officials in Handan County, Hebei Province, have been charged with abuse of power in helping to cover up a coal mine gas explosion at the Hongda Colliery in Handan County on 3 June, which killed 14 miners and injured 23 others and caused a loss of 2.07 million Yuan.

According to Xinhua, the mine owner “collaborated with some local officials” to give a false death toll of only one miner killed to investigators from the central government. It said the owner was worried that if the real figure was disclosed, authorities would shut down his mine and he would lose money. The charged officials were accused of failing to search the mine’s passageways for more trapped miners and of secretly cremating five bodies.

Sources: Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, BBC, South China Morning Post

29 November 2004