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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 23, 2001

New Gas Explosion Kills at Least 16 Chinese Miners

At least 16 miners have been confirmed dead in a gas explosion at a county-run coal mine in Luliang Prefecture, north China's Shanxi Province, Thursday afternoon.The provincial government Friday morning ordered all mines in the province to suspend production instantly for check and reinforcement of safety measures.


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Small Coal Mines in Shanxi Ordered to Stop Production for Safety Checks
A string of coal mine explosions in Shanxi
At least 16 miners have been confirmed dead in a gas explosion at a county-run coal mine in Luliang Prefecture, north China's Shanxi Province, Thursday afternoon.

The death toll was reported by rescue workers Friday morning, who have found bodies of 16 miners at the Qiaojiagou coal mine.

It is the fifth such accident ever taking place in this north Chinese province within nine days.

An official in charge of rescue operations told that rescuers are still searching for 10 other miners who have been trapped in the mine.

When the gas explosion took place Thursday afternoon, 54 miners were digging coal passage tunnel from the no. 4 and no. 5 coal strata, in preparation for formal production of the mine.

So far, 28 of the 54 miners have been rescued alive.
Production suspension and severe punishment urged
On Tuesday, the mine was given a notice by local authorities to suspend production for safety reasons, but it paid no attention to the notice and continued its operation.

After the accident, leaders of the mine have been detained. Being informed of the accident, the provincial leaders of Shanxi rushed to the site of the accident to organize rescue operations early Friday morning.

While urging to severely punish those directly responsible for the accident, the provincial government Friday morning ordered all mines in the province to suspend production instantly for check and reinforcement of safety measures.

Shanxi abounds in coal resources and is dubbed as " sea of coal". Qiaojiagou mine, run by the local government of Zhongyang County and with more than 120 workers, began construction in May 2000. It has a designed annual production capacity of 90,000 tons of coal on completion.



China Issues Circular to Shut Down Small Coal Mines
To curb the recurrence of coal mine accidents, the State Council on June 14 issued an urgent circular demanding all state-owned small coal mines be shut right away and a stop put to coal mining by all township coal mines.

The circular asks that since issuance of the circular all state-owned coal mines stop operation and be closed before June 30. As for some provinces like Shanxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang with a weighing task to that end, they should also shut down all small coal mines by the end of September. Meanwhile, all township coal mining will have to be suspended and thorough revamping work carried out before getting back to normal operation.



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