A total of 104 miners have been killed in a series of coal mine accidents across China in the past eight days, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS). SAWS officials recently admitted that coal mine safety was growing worse. "There is a stronger demand for coal in winter as it is the major material for heating in most parts of China. For this reason, coal mines try to produce more than they can manage," a SAWS official said.

The 104 miners were killed in four serious accidents and three of them occurred in Shanxi province, China's major coal production base which is notorious for its frequent accidents, Xinhua said.

On 12 November, 25 miners were confirmed dead and nine others were still missing after a mine fire occurred at Nanshan Colliery in Wangyu village of Lingshi county, Shanxi province, northern China. Thirty-six miners were working underground when privately made explosives were stored in a pit of the mine. The 25 deceased miners were suffocated by poisonous gas released by the explosives. Only two miners survived the accident.

Most of the miners were migrant workers from Shandong and Sichuan provinces. Gong Anku, the head of the provincial work safety bureau, said the families of the victims would be given "at least 200,000 yuan (US$25,440) each in compensation."

The mine owner fled after the accident. Police were searching for several coal mine managers. Feng Kaicheng, vice county chief of Lingshi, said the mine managers ran away without reporting the accident to the government which delayed the rescue operation. "But what is even worse is that they are the only ones with all the information regarding the location of the tunnels inside the mine," he said.

The license of the village-owned Nanshan Colliery, which has an annual production capacity of 90,000 tons, expired more than six months ago. The number of registered workers at the mine was 120, but in fact 139 workers were working in the mine.

As of 13 November, the death toll of another coal mine accident in Xinzhou, also in Shanxi province, climbed to 35, while 12 others were still missing. A gas blast occurred at the Jiaojiazhai Colliery on 5 November, trapping 47 miners. A total of 393 miners were working in the mine when the accident occurred and 346 managed to escape. The mine's gas monitoring system showed that the gas concentration was abnormal and there was a risk of explosion, according to the SAWS. But the production managers did not take effective preventive measures and did not order the miners to stop working.

Ten miners were killed after an illegal coal mine in Wangfeng township, Wanbailin district of Taiyuan city, capital of Shanxi province, was flooded on 7 November. The mine owner ran away. Local authorities were discussing compensation for the victims' families.

Meanwhile, five miners have been confirmed dead and eight others were still missing in another coal mine accident in Hunan province, central China. Altogether 23 miners were working underground when a gas explosion took place on 8 November in the Xinpo Coal Mine in Leiyang city. Li Ming, vice mayor of Leiyang city, said the chance for the eight missing miners to survive was slim due to high intensity of toxic gas and serious cave-in underground. Most of the victims were villagers from the town of Simenzhou, where the mine was situated and the victims' families were each given 220,000 yuan (US$25,425) in compensation, according to Xinhua. Li Quanfa and Li Quansheng, both managers of the coal mine, fled after the accident. The privately-owned coal mine produced 30,000 tons of coal annually.

Since August last year, the State Administration of Work Safety has announced several orders to close down small and medium-sized coal mines and ordered government officials to withdraw their investments from coal mines. So far, we can see that these measures have been proved ineffective to prevent coal mine accidents. According to a Xinhua report on 12 November, Diao Min, the former chief of the technology and equipment department of the Shanxi Provincial Coal Mine Safety Supervision Administration, were sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking bribes in total of more than 1.01 million yuan (about US$126,000 yuan) between 2001 and 2004 to help bribers pass safety examinations and assessment. Diao was also found to possess another 3.18 million yuan which he could not identify the sources.

In March this year, China Labour Bulletin published a Chinese research report on coal mine safety management (See: http://www.clb.org.hk/schi/node/article?revision%5fid=69970&item%5fid=69795). In the report, we pointed out the only and the best way to reduce coal mine accidents was to allow miners to take part in coal mine safety management and monitoring. Since miners work in the mines everyday, they should be much more familiar with the situation of their workplaces than government safety officials. It is a consideration of the miners' best interests by allowing them to monitor the safety of their workplaces, provided that they are given enough training on coal mine safety.

Sources: Xinhua News Agency (9 November 2006, 12 November 2006, 13 November 2006), China Labour Bulletin

14 November 2006