Fatal accidents trigger concerns over state-owned coal mines(2)

With annual production of 3 million tonnes, Babao Coal Mine is a state-owned colliery with more than 3,500 workers. Total investment of the mine reached 1.8 billion yuan (286 million U.S. dollars).

Local residents told Xinhua the mine was known for its safety management, and it even won a national "safety award" last year.

In addition to the explosions at the mine, other accidents have happened recently in state-owned coal mines.

An outburst of coal and gas at the Machang Coal Mine, which belongs to the Gemudi Company of the Guizhou Water and Mining Group in southwest China's Guizhou Province, killed 25 on March 12.

On Jan. 18, 13 miners died in a gas blast at the state-owned Jinjia Coal Mine, operated by the Guizhou Panjiang Clean Coal Co. Ltd., in Liupanshui City of Guizhou Province.

On Nov. 24, 2012, 23 miners were killed and five others were injured in a mine and gas outburst in Xiangshui Coal Mine operated by Pannan Coal Exploitation Co., Ltd.

Huang Yuzhi, deputy head of State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, said major coal mine accidents had been rare in the large state-owned coal businesses, which led to safety ignorance from the management of these companies.

To improve the safety conditions of coal mines, the Chinese government requested that state-owned companies merge private ones from 2009. They were believed safer compared with the loosely-managed private mines, which were reluctant to pour funds to improve safety.

The merged super-large state-owned mining companies, however, have led to new problems.

Zheng Baoshan, professor with the Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said these companies, due to scale and tax revenue they brought to local economies, became too influential to be supervised by watchdogs.

"They often supervise themselves, and relevant penalties to responsible managers are too light if any accidents happen," said Zheng.

Experts urge the government to link production safety, income and careers of state-owned managers, and, in cases of promotion, veto the leaders who are responsible for any accidents.

Zheng also advised establishing an inspector system, under which inspectors are entitled to request any mines' production halt if any hidden hazards are found.