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October 26, 2009

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Shanxi mines merge as province tackles safety

THE first group of 19 merged coal mines in Shanxi Province have won business permits from authorities, as the region ramps up its restructuring campaign to improve work safety conditions and production capacity.

About 97.9 percent of 2,598 mines involved have signed merger deals, the provincial administration of land and resources and coal industry said yesterday.

Shanxi, China's leading coal production province hit by frequent fatal mining accidents, wants to eradicate all small mines with an annual production capacity of below 300,000 tons by the end of the year.

By closing about 60 percent of its existing coal mines, the province will end up with 1,053 collieries, of which 20 percent are state-owned firms, 30 percent are privately run and 50 percent with mixed ownership.

All the merged coal mines must adopt mechanized mining methods, which will greatly raise output and reduce workplace fatalities. According to the plan, after the restructure Shanxi is expected to have four coal mine groups producing more than 100 million tons of coal a year.

Three groups will have an annual output of more than 50 million tons and 83 companies will have production capacity ranging between about 3 million tons a year to more than 10 million tons, said Wang Shouzhen, director of the province's coal industry administration.

The government initiated the campaign late last year with the approval of state-level authorities. Between January and September this year, the province registered 159 deaths in 45 coal mine accidents, a drop of 28 percent and 62 percent respectively from the same period last year.





 

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