Coal mines that fail to meet safety standards must be closed for good

SATURDAY'S COAL MINE ACCIDENT in Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region is already known to have killed 32, with miners still trapped underground. Incomplete data show that, besides this one, there have been at least eight major coal mine accidents since October, which have claimed 97 lives in all. Beijing News comments:

The increasing frequency of coal mine disasters since October is a result of the upturn in the coal industry. As the northern regions need to burn coal to provide central heating to residents, the price of coal has been rising. On Nov 2, the price of steam coal from around the Bohai region, which is considered a barometer of the domestic coal industry, reached 607 yuan ($88.2) per ton, 64 percent higher than at the beginning of the year.

The rising price of coal has prompted mine owners to increase production; some of them have even reopened coal mines that had already been shut down for safety reasons.