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26 March, 2007
Over 100 Chinese miners were killed in eight gruesome coal mine tragedies over the past three weeks. The China mine deaths again occur under odd and peculiar circumstances, including mine-owner cover-ups and careless safety practices. The eight tragedies represent only those deadly mine tragedies that have been reported in the Chinese press.
Three separate incidents over the past week were marked by initial cover-ups by mine owners. On 22 March at the Shangjiwu mine in Ruzhou city, Henan province, 15 miners died after flooding and high levels of methane gas encapsulated mine shafts. Mine owners attempted failed rescue attempts and only alerted mine safety officials two days later, on 24 March.
Two other cover-ups occurred in the aftermath of a pair of tragedies on 18 March at illegal mines. At the Miaojing mine near Jincheng city, southeast Shanxi Province, 21 miners died in a gas explosion. Two days later, on 20 March, the mine owner and 10 others were arrested, charged with operating an illegal mine and failing to report the explosion.
The mine owner of the Dongfang No. 1 coal mine in Liaoning Province was arrested on 21 March after a deadly fire occurred in his mine. He tried to hide the incident and the deaths from work safety officials. Six miners were killed and 15 injured in this tragedy near Dongliang Township in the Fuxin Mongolian autonomous county.
On 15 March, six people were crushed to death when the coal mine tailings area they were on gave way due to a massive sinkhole. This occurred near Huludao city, southwest Liaoning Province. The five women and one man who died were on land directly above an abandoned mine site.
On 8 March, eight miners died inside shafts after a gas leak near the city of Xingyang, northern Henan Province. The mine was being operated illegally. On the same day in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a cave-in at a colliery operated by the town government of Changle killed two miners.
China’s worst mine disaster in March occurred at state-owned Fushun Group’s Laohutai mine near the city of Fushun, Liaoning Province. On 10 March, 29 miners were swept to their deaths off a mine platform, following a mass release of water. The mine is one of Fushun’s main operations and contains several unused pits.
The government ordered some 900 private coal mines shut in the province for a week after this disaster, and State Administration of Work Safety Director Li Yizhong issued pointed statements on its cause. “This accident could have been averted if the mine knew about the conditions in the unused pit and taken measures to prevent floods,” he said in an online interview.
On 6 March in Hunan Province, 15 miners died during illegal operation of the Hongfa coal mine in Shaodong County. The mine had been shut for safety maintenance repairs, and the methane gas blast was caused by damaged ventilation shafts and illegal electrical systems in areas where miners were working.
In Li Yizhong’s mid-March interview, he said China leads the world in coal mine deaths with an average of 2.041 people killed for every million tons of coal mined. That is four times higher than death rates in Poland, Russia, and South Africa.