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30 November, 2009
China’s deadliest coal mine disaster in two years occurred in the early morning hours of 21 November when 108 miners died deep in shafts at the state-run Xinxing mine in Hegang City, located in northeastern Heilongjiang.
Considered one of China’s most up-to-date and safety advanced collieries, the miners perished after alarms went off indicating high methane gas levels. Some 80 minutes later, an explosion occurred. China’s State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) initially blamed lack of timely evacuation, poor ventilation in several mine shafts, and over-crowding as cause.
A total of 528 miners were working the 1.45 million metric-tonne-per-year mine at the time of the blast. A maze of shafts extend some three to four kilometers underground and several kilometers horizontally and is thought to be too vast and extensive to support the existing and modern ventilation system.
The gas density levels inside Xinxing when the explosion happened at 02h30 on 21 November registered five times the levels in which miners are expected to be evacuated.
The state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Company began paying compensation of 342,000 yuan (US$50,000) in immediate and long-term compensation to the victims’ families. In addition, the All Chine Federation of Labour (ACFTU) allocated one million yuan (US$148,000) in emergency relief for injured workers and families of victims, while local branches of the ACFTU have also pledged smaller amounts.
At a meeting with the ICEM a day before the Xinxing explosion in Geneva, ACFTU International Department Deputy Director Xu Hu said the high number of coal-mining accidents in China is an issue that “troubles us the most.” He said the labour confederation, together with SAWS and other agencies have put pilot safety projects in place province by province at smaller mines, and China has taken some private enterprise mines into state hands.
By Chinese standards, Xinxing is one of the biggest mines. It has over 100 tunnels and 30 mining platforms and on a normal work day, employs some 3,000 miners underground.