China reports drop in coal mine deaths, accidents for 2009

Drop in China mine deaths, accidents for 2009

BEIJING — The number of deaths in China’s mining industry, the world’s deadliest, fell 20 percent last year as more dangerous smaller mines were closed, a safety official said.

Zhao Tiechui, the head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, said accidents caused 2,631 deaths — a decline of 22 percent, or 584 deaths, from the previous year, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

That works out to 7.2 deaths a day from 8.8 in 2008. The number of accidents also declined.

The number of fatalities is the lowest in years and a result of China’s strenuous efforts to police its mining industry, Zhao told a national workplace safety conference in Beijing. China has closed or absorbed hundreds of smaller, often illegal private mines into state-owned operations, which are generally safer.

Zhao said small coal mines, which produce 35 percent of the country’s coal, were responsible for 70 percent of the fatalities. A total of 1,088 small coal mines were closed last year, Xinhua reported.

Lax safety methods, a lack of training and equipment, and a rush to feed China’s insatiable demand for coal to fuel its booming economy are behind the accidents. In November, 108 miners were killed in a coal mine blast in northeast China. It was the country’s deadliest mining accident in two years.