Report: Fire in gold mine traps 50 workers underground in eastern China

Mine fire traps 50 underground in eastern China

BEIJING — A fire in a gold mine trapped 50 workers underground in eastern China, state media reported Friday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the blaze broke out Friday afternoon at the Lingnan Gold Mine in Zhaoyuan city in eastern Shandong province.

More than 200 workers were pulled out safely though it was unclear how many people had been working in the mine.

Officials said an initial investigation showed that the fire was likely caused by an underground cable. No further details were immediately available.

China has the world’s deadliest mining industry with more than 2,600 people killed in mine accidents last year. Those figures represent a drop from previous years as the government has moved to close down smaller, illegal mines.

This week, 25 miners were killed in two separate accidents when lethal gas seeped into the mines where they were working. Nine workers were killed at a mine Monday in central Henan province, while 16 workers died Tuesday at a mine in southwestern Guizhou province.

The Chinese government has attempted to improve workers’ safety, but faced huge obstacles.

Mining deaths jumped again in the first half of this year. Coal mine deaths through June were 1,261, up from 1,175 in the same period last year.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for the work safety administration told the China Daily newspaper the jump was due in part to China’s recovery from the economic crisis.

Last month, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered mine managers and bosses to accompany workers down into mine shafts in a bid to improve safety.

However, the approach has failed to produce any impact. More than 100 miners have died in the past month; none of those killed were mine bosses or managers — a fact noted with unusual criticism by the typically docile state media.