China to shut mines amid new deaths

More than 5,000 miners died in Chinese mines last year, officials say

BEIJING, China -- Explosions in two Chinese coalmines have killed 31 miners on the same day that Beijing has said it will close thousands of unsafe mines this year.

The natural gas explosions ripped through two mines in the same Chinese city, a government official said Wednesday.

China has the world's biggest mining industry and also the deadliest. More than 5,600 people were killed in coalmine accidents last year, the semi-official China News Service has said. Other mining accidents killed nearly 2,000, it said.

China's official news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday that China plans to close down 30 per cent of its small coal mines this year, and cut coal mine deaths by 10 per cent.

China has repeatedly announced crackdowns on small and privately owned coalmines for poor safety standards, but many continue to operate under local protection.

Many small mines run by town officials or private investors lack fire and ventilation equipment.

Blasts

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The first blast Tuesday killed 24 miners at the Donghai Coal Mine in Jixi, a city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, said a spokeswoman for the State Coal Mine Safety Supervision Administration.

In a separate accident later that day, seven miners were killed by an explosion in the No. 3 Pit of the Didao District Coal Co., said the spokeswoman, who would give only her surname, An. Four miners were still missing.

A gas explosion at another mine in Jixi in February 2001 killed 35 miners.

On Wednesday, state media quoted the head of the government industrial-safety agency as promising to improve safety at big mines.

China says it will shut down 8,00 unsafe small mines by the end of this year.

China has shut down 12,257 small mines since last May both to improve safety and to cut a glut of coal production, the China Daily has said.