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China: Families of Miners Killed in Inner Mongolia Coal Mine Blast Compensated

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Hohhot, 23 March: Families of the 21 miners who were killed in a coal mine gas blast in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 10 days ago have all received compensation from the local government.

A total of 4.67m yuan (583,750 U. S. dollars) has been distributed to the families with more than 220,000 yuan (27,500 U. S. dollars) for each, said an official with the government of Otog Banner in Ordos, where the explosion happened.

The accident occurred at 3:25 a.m. on March 13 at Rongsheng Colliery while 34 miners were working underground. Thirteen survived the accident, of which two were seriously injured.

Eight of the injured have been discharged from hospital and the rest were in a stable condition, said the official.

The coal mine is privately-owned with an annual output of 900,000 tons.Investigators found the mine was being operated without a production safety license.

Li Zhongfu, director of the mine, has been in police custody and the coal mine's accounts and funds have been frozen. Li, aged 43, is a native of Jixi, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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