China mining toll 'below 100,000'


Most of China's 16,000 mines are illegal - and dangerous


China's State Administration of Work Safety office has said the death toll among coal mine workers fell 15% last year, compared to that of 2007.
The official death toll last year was 91,172, the first time since 1995 that the figure fell below 100,000.
The death rate in coal mine accidents, per 1 million tonnes of coal produced, dropped 20.4% year-on-year to 1.182, the work safety office added.
Officials said tougher law enforcement and shutting illegal mines had helped.
China's state news agency Xinhua, which reported the new figures, quoted Zhao Tiechui, senior official in charge of coal mine supervision, urging harder work on safety and accident prevention in the coming year.
China closed 1,054 illegal coal mines in 2008, but government figures show that almost 80% of the country's 16,000 mines remain illegal.
While coal production was up 7.5% last year, to about 2.72 billion tonnes, the number of accidents fell significantly, Mr Zhao said.
Last year, illegal mines produced 35% of the nation's coal, but accounted for 73% (21,000) of mining deaths in the industry, he added.
"Coal mines often experience the most serious accidents because so many of them are operating illegally. The industry also sees the most frequent covering-up of accidents," Mr Zhao said.
'Year of Work Safety'
The China Daily reported that the number of traffic accidents, firework accidents and other industrial accidents also fell significantly last year, due to improved supervision.
Announcing the start of a "Year of Work Safety", Luo Lin, head of the administration, said more measures would be launched this year to ensure accident rates continued to fall, the newspaper reported.
But despite the overall decline in accident and fatality numbers, Mr Luo said the number of serious accidents last year was up by more than 35% on 2007.
Almost 3,500 officials were investigated and 425 were arrested last year for negligence in relation to mining accidents, he said. The scandal linked to the collapse of an iron ore reservoir at a mine in Shanxi province resulted in 34 officials being dismissed, he said. "Illegal production and cover-ups are still too frequent in the industry, and some local governments and corporations remain ignorant of their responsibilities with regard to work safety," Mr Luo said.



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