42 officials held accountable for coal mine collapse in china

Forty-two officials have been held accountable and 13 company employees have been arrested after an investigation into a deadly coal mine collapse in Inner Mongolia autonomous region in February.

The collapse at the Xinjing Open Pit Coal Mine in Alshaa League on Feb 22 killed 53 people. Six workers were found dead shortly after the collapse, and local authorities pronounced the deaths of the other 47 people who were reported missing on June 21, when the search and rescue mission concluded.

The investigation team of the State Council, the country's cabinet, found that the collapse was caused by the risky and reckless operation of Hongxinyao Earth and Rock Engineering Company, which was contracted to transform the mine from an underground mine to an open-pit mine. The company had no qualification for construction projects in mines.

The investigation report also found that local authorities had neglected their supervisory duties and had allowed major risks and hazards to linger at the mine for an extended period of time.

Six of the officials have been placed under disciplinary review and supervisory investigation on suspicion of seriously violating disciplines of the Communist Party of China and national laws. The other 36 officials have also been punished.

Local police launched an investigation into 19 people for the crime of causing a major-liability accident. Thirteen of them have been arrested.

The report said that the coal mine was undergoing construction to be transformed from an underground mine into an open-pit one when the accident happened. Mining, however, was not suspended as required as the construction continued.

The direct cause of the accident was that the contractor did not construct the transformation project as designed, which resulted in an extremely high and steep slope. The mining company conducted exploitation continuously in a highly intensive manner as the construction went on, which greatly undermined the stability of the slope.

The report also said that the local authorities should strengthen their supervision of mines and take measures to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.