| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, November 17, 2001 |
China Shuts Down 11,882 Small Coal Mines in 10 Months |
|
China has closed down 11,882 small coal mines during the first 10 months of this year in a campaign to ensure the safety of the mining industry.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
China has closed down 11,882 small coal mines during the first 10 months of this year in a campaign to ensure the safety of the mining industry.
Officials with the office of the Committee for Safety in Production under the State Council said the country reported 2,378 coal mine accidents for the same period and the death toll was down by 7.24 percent over the same period of last year.
They said that 905 of the 1,284 small State-owned coal mines, with the exception of those in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, and the provinces of Heilongjiang and Liaoning, northeast China, have been shut down.
The officials said 10,977 small coal mines closed down were part of the 33,977 ones owned by township governments across the country.
The total number of small coal mines have been cut to 23,000 from 82,000 in 1997 while the country's overall annual coal output by small coal mines has dropped to about 200 million tons from 620 million tons in 1997.
China's annual coal output has been lowered to one billion tons for three consecutive years from the record high of 1.37 billion tons years ago.
Small coal mines in China have been notorious for their poor safety records.
|
|
|
|