China coal mine blast kills 68, traps over 100

BEIJING (Reuters) – An explosion ripped through a coal mine
in China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang, killing 68
miners and trapping 79 underground, just days after Chinese
leaders called for vigilance to prevent major accidents.

The blast was reported on Sunday at Dongfeng Coal Mine, run
by a branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining (Group) Co.
Ltd., the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, quoting
the provincial coal mine safety administration.

Seventy-four of 221 miners working underground at the time
of the blast were rescued, Xinhua said. A coal-dust explosion
had knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit,
investigators said. The main system resumed operation on
Monday.

The explosion was the latest disaster to strike
Heilongjiang, whose capital city, Harbin, was held hostage for
five days by a toxic spill coursing through the river that
provides its water supply, forcing a five-day shut-down of tap
water.

The slick, caused by an explosion at a chemical plant in
nearby Jilin province about two weeks ago, passed through the
Songhua River and out of Harbin at the weekend. Taps were
turned back on Sunday.

Making no mention of the toxic spill, President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen Jiabao called last week for vigilance to
prevent major accidents which cause huge casualties and
property losses.

Hu and Wen urged law enforcement agencies to implement
stricter inspection measures and punish those responsible in
accordance with the law, state media said, without elaborating.

WORLD’S DEADLIEST MINING

China’s mining industry is the biggest and the deadliest in
the world. Accidents killed more than 2,700 miners in the first
half of this year alone.

The country has launched safety campaigns to clean up and
shut down illegal mines in the hope that consolidating China’s
thousands of tiny and primitive operations will improve safety.

But booming energy demand and high coal prices has driven
some mine owners to ignore regulations and Sunday’s blast, at a
state-owned mine, shows that larger players are not immune from
disasters.

Longmei Group is a conglomerate of four state-owned major
coal businesses in the northeastern province, with a registered
capital of 13 billion yuan.

China’s worst coal mine accident this year killed 214
people at a state-run mine in the northeastern province of
Liaoning.

Accidents and disasters cause more than 1 million
casualties annually in China. They also bring economic losses
of 650 billion yuan each year, equivalent to 6 percent of gross
domestic product, Xinhua said in a separate report, citing Wang
Jikun, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security.