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Greedy officials shield small outlaw coal mines
Source: Xinhua |
December 14, 2010, Tuesday
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WEI Baoyuan, deputy head of Mianchi County in central China's Henan Province, was going on and on, lauding his local government's improvements in coal mine safety
"Please stop praising yourself. If you've done a commendable job, why did the accident happen?" asked Liu Guoji, an official with the provincial discipline inspection commission probing a recent deadly gas blast in a mine in Mianchi.
Wei was addressing a work conference about the accident last Tuesday when 26 miners were killed at the Juyuan Coal Mine in Mianchi. The mine is being merged into the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, a state-owned conglomerate in Henan. As the mine's assets have not yet been transferred, its ownership has not changed.
The blast was the third such accident at a coal mine undergoing mergers and acquisitions this year in Henan, China's fourth-largest coal-producing province. Since March, Henan has launched a massive campaign of coal mine mergers and acquisitions as a way to boost efficient use of resources and reduce safety risks.
The mine consolidation program has also been launched in major coal regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. As a result, the country's coal output was temporarily reduced and prices were pushed up, especially in the winter when coal is needed for heating.
Lured by profits, some small mines, like Juyuan, which is under workplace renovation, secretly resumed operations. An initial investigation found the Juyuan mine had been officially closed for workplace renovations as part of the merger, and its operation should not have resumed before safety hazards were dealt with.
On the day of the accident, the mine owner, surnamed Suo, ordered miners into the mine, when a supervisor sent to the mine by Yi Ma Coal Industry Group was taking a one-month training course 200 kilometers away in Jiaozuo City. After the accident, Suo allegedly concealed the bodies of four victims in the shaft and fled. He was apprehended and is not being interrogated by police.
While the investigators were struggling to figure out the exact number of trapped miners, Zhao Xuanming, who was familiar with the situation, kept silent.
Zhao, an official assigned by the county government to supervise safety at the Juyuan Coal Mine, failed to quickly report the accident to higher authorities.
He, too, was detained by police, and investigators believe there was a high likelihood of collusion between Zhao and the mine owner.
Moreover, the coal mining is crucial in the economic development of some counties, and the production shortfall shrank the fiscal revenues of county governments.
Investigators said local governments' over-reliance on the coal industry would easily lead to lax safety supervision.
Also, executives with the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, Juyuan's prospective parent company, admitted that they had failed to properly supervise Juyuan's safety conditions. Wu Yulu, president of the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, said the group was merging 79 coal mines, but all of them had not yet transferred their assets.
Wu said those mines had problems with technology, equipment and management, and Juyuan needed no less than a year to remove all the safety hazards.
According to the statistics from the Shanxi coal mine safety agency, to produce the same amount of coal, a small coal mine would claim 10 times more lives of its miners than a large coal mine.
In 2009, 2,631 people died in coal mine accidents in China.
"Please stop praising yourself. If you've done a commendable job, why did the accident happen?" asked Liu Guoji, an official with the provincial discipline inspection commission probing a recent deadly gas blast in a mine in Mianchi.
Wei was addressing a work conference about the accident last Tuesday when 26 miners were killed at the Juyuan Coal Mine in Mianchi. The mine is being merged into the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, a state-owned conglomerate in Henan. As the mine's assets have not yet been transferred, its ownership has not changed.
The blast was the third such accident at a coal mine undergoing mergers and acquisitions this year in Henan, China's fourth-largest coal-producing province. Since March, Henan has launched a massive campaign of coal mine mergers and acquisitions as a way to boost efficient use of resources and reduce safety risks.
The mine consolidation program has also been launched in major coal regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. As a result, the country's coal output was temporarily reduced and prices were pushed up, especially in the winter when coal is needed for heating.
Lured by profits, some small mines, like Juyuan, which is under workplace renovation, secretly resumed operations. An initial investigation found the Juyuan mine had been officially closed for workplace renovations as part of the merger, and its operation should not have resumed before safety hazards were dealt with.
On the day of the accident, the mine owner, surnamed Suo, ordered miners into the mine, when a supervisor sent to the mine by Yi Ma Coal Industry Group was taking a one-month training course 200 kilometers away in Jiaozuo City. After the accident, Suo allegedly concealed the bodies of four victims in the shaft and fled. He was apprehended and is not being interrogated by police.
While the investigators were struggling to figure out the exact number of trapped miners, Zhao Xuanming, who was familiar with the situation, kept silent.
Zhao, an official assigned by the county government to supervise safety at the Juyuan Coal Mine, failed to quickly report the accident to higher authorities.
He, too, was detained by police, and investigators believe there was a high likelihood of collusion between Zhao and the mine owner.
Moreover, the coal mining is crucial in the economic development of some counties, and the production shortfall shrank the fiscal revenues of county governments.
Investigators said local governments' over-reliance on the coal industry would easily lead to lax safety supervision.
Also, executives with the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, Juyuan's prospective parent company, admitted that they had failed to properly supervise Juyuan's safety conditions. Wu Yulu, president of the Yi Ma Coal Industry Group, said the group was merging 79 coal mines, but all of them had not yet transferred their assets.
Wu said those mines had problems with technology, equipment and management, and Juyuan needed no less than a year to remove all the safety hazards.
According to the statistics from the Shanxi coal mine safety agency, to produce the same amount of coal, a small coal mine would claim 10 times more lives of its miners than a large coal mine.
In 2009, 2,631 people died in coal mine accidents in China.
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