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China will close another 30 percent of its existing small coal mines this year, reducing the total number to 15,000, according to top coal mine safety official Zhang Baoming.
China will also aim to cut the coal mine death toll and the
number of major accidents by 10 percent, Zhang, director of the
State Bureau for Supervising Coal Mine Safety, said at a national
conference on coal mine safety Tuesday.
China recorded 556 coal mine accidents in the first quarter of
this year, causing 994 deaths.
The two figures are 57.9 percent and 13 percent up from the
same period last year, and a large number of the accidents
occurred in township mines, especially in unlicensed small mines,
he said.
Over the 11 months to March, a national campaign for coal mine safety has resulted in the shutdown of 12,257 small mines,
reducing the total number of coal mines to 23,000.
The shutdown of small mines has eased the serious oversupply of coal in the country, Zhang said.
The overall safety situation for the industry has also improved, with the number of accidents and deaths dropping, he added.
(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2002)
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