Mine rescuers work on amid grim discoveries

Rescuers were still searching for one miner and 22 were confirmed dead 9:50 pm on Sunday, one day after a gas explosion in a coal mine in Guizhou province, China Central Television reported.

Twenty-eight miners were working in the Xiangshui Coal Mine when the explosion occurred at 10:55 am on Saturday, Guizhou provincial authorities said.

Five miners were rescued and rushed to a hospital, one of them in critical condition. Four managers at the Pannan Coal Exploitation Co, which operates the mine, have been dismissed after authorities held them responsible for the accident, China News Service reported on Sunday. 

The mine has a history of coal gas explosions, and the company has failed to come up with preventive measures, according to authorities. 

Authorities have set the compensation for each dead at 1.04 million yuan ($166,000), the highest compensation rate for work-related deaths. 

The mine, in Panxian county in Liupanshui, opened in 2006 and has an annual output of 4 million metric tons. It sits on a coal deposit of 1.3 billion tons.

Coal from Xiangshui feeds the region's Pannan Power Station, which is a key facility in the government's strategy of sending electricity from the resource-rich western region to the power-hungry industry belts in the east.

According to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety in mid-October, 1,146 people died in 650 mining accidents in China this year. About 46.5 percent of the deaths were caused by illegal mining operations.

Authorities intended to shut down 625 small mines this year to increase mining safety. 

On Saturday, the State Council ordered tighter supervision of coal mine safety.