6 killed, 12 missing in mine gas surge By Fu Jing (China Daily) Updated: 2006-02-27 05:23
Six miners died in a coal mine gas surge in Central China's Hunan Province at
the weekend.
Twelve miners still missing in the accident are feared to have suffocated to
death.
A local official said yesterday that the missing workers were unlikely to
have survived despite the ongoing rescue efforts which have been going on round
the clock.
The methane gas surge happened at 5 pm on Saturday in Dayuan Coal Mine of the
province's Longhui County when 24 miners were working underground. Six miners
were saved.
"The amount of gas is too much and those missing miners were probably
suffocated to death," the head of the county's coal industry bureau, surnamed
Huang, told China Daily.
"There is no hope of survival." He said the mine was full of methane gas and
rescue efforts had been difficult.
The mine has about 150 miners and an annual mining capacity of 20,000 tons.
Huang said his county has nine such small coal mines, and claimed they had
all met the central government's standards for work safety.
However, the highest safety watchdog has not been satisfied with the
province's efforts in closing up small-scale mines, which are blamed for
frequent disasters because of poor safety equipment.
Recently, safety inspection teams headed by Li Yizhong, minister of the State
Administration of Work Safety, found that a large number of small mines in the
province did not meet the national work safety standards.
Many local officials are believed to have been working to help protect the
illegal pits from being closed.
"Frequent examinations should be made on collieries that have been asked to
shut down and those that were required to enhance safety measures," said Li.
Recently, the provincial government has agreed to close more than 400 coal
mines in Hunan. The central government has decided to close 12,900 small coal
mines across the country within the next three years.
(China Daily 02/27/2006 page3)
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