China mine blast kills 62, mocking safety drives

BEIJING (Reuters) – A gas explosion at a Chinese coal pit
has killed at least 62 miners, state media said on Thursday,
the latest in a grimly familiar series of statistics to emerge
from the world’s deadliest mining industry.

Thirteen were missing in freezing temperatures at the
Liuguantun colliery in Tangshan, northern Hebei province, after
Wednesday’s blast. Xinhua news agency said 186 miners were
working in the pit at the time but later revised the figure to
104.

The State Administration of Work Safety put the number in
the pit at 123.

China has been struggling to clean up its mining industry,
in which 2,700 people have died in the first half of the year
alone, but a string of accidents in the past few weeks has made
a mockery of repeated safety campaigns.

An explosion in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang
in late November killed 171 miners.

Flooding at another Hebei mine days earlier trapped 18
underground. Three managers fled the scene, leaving rescuers
with no guide to the underground warren.

Last week, 42 miners were caught by flooding at a mine in
the central province of Henan. Three mine officials fled that
accident, but they were later caught by police. The mine had
been operating without a safety permit.

As of Wednesday, those miners were still trapped
underground, the China Daily newspaper said, adding that it was
unlikely any had survived.

The Liuguantun mine was originally a state-owned mine run
by the local government and had an annual production capacity
of 300,000 tonnes. In 2002 it went into private ownership and
its production capacity was halved, Xinhua said.

The Work Safety Administration said Liuguantun was
classified as a low-gas mine, but Xinhua said investigators had
confirmed a gas explosion as the cause of the accident.

The government has been trying to close small mines to
consolidate the industry, has demanded officials sever
financial links with mines and called for managers to head
underground with miners on each shift to check safety
standards.

But booming demand and high coal prices mean regulations
are often ignored, production is pushed beyond safe limits and
closed mines reopen illegally.