Eleven miners have died after a gas explosion in a coal mine in Central China's Hubei Province Monday night, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday, citing the local authorities.
There were 46 miners working underground at the time of the incident at Xinjia Coal Mine in Badong, a county in the Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, according to Xinhua.
Sixteen miners were at the coalface at the time of the 8 pm blast. Five managed to escape soon after but 11 were trapped and have since died.
Twenty rescuers are working in shifts to clear the mine shaft and search for the bodies of the miners, the report said.
According to a statement published on the website of China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) on Tuesday, it is the fourth serious mining accident in the country in the fourth quarter of this year alone.
The statement pointed out that there has been an obvious uptick in serious mining accidents recently, posing a great threat to those who work in coal mines.
"However, due to the rising coal price, some coal mines are still engaged in illegal production, ignoring national requirements for work safety," read the statement.
Driven by profit
"The uptick has coincided with increases in the coal price since July," Han Meng, a research fellow with the Institute of Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index, a weekly measure of coal prices in northern China's major ports, retreated to 599 yuan ($87) per ton at the end of November following a rise to 607 yuan per ton in early November, Xinhua reported.
Han said that the price rise has been mainly due to stable growth in the national economy, which has renewed demand for coal.
"Coal is still the main energy source in China, making up about 70 percent to 75 percent of the domestic energy yield, and forms the base of the country's industrialization process," Han noted, adding that it is impossible for renewable resources to replace coal in the short term.
Xing Lei, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told The Beijing News that the national movement to deal with industrial overcapacity has helped bolster the coal price together with increasing demand.
Along with the supply-side reform of coal and steel industries that has been implemented this year, the National Development and Reform Commission in April issued a document to regulate the coal industry and reduce production, banning coal mines all over the country from working for more than 276 days per year.
As a result, according to Han, some coal mines, mostly those using unsafe equipment, have been engaging in illegal production.
"These enterprises are willing to take the risk of illegal production as they have been losing money for years due to a constantly low coal price," The Beijing News reported, citing an unnamed official from the work safety department of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
Han added that, besides the high coal price, a lack of safety consciousness among mine owners and miners is another main cause of accidents.
Litany of tragedy
Several officials have been suspended following a deadly underground blast that left 32 miners dead in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
Another 21 miners were confirmed dead and one is still trapped after a mine blast in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on the morning of November 29. The explosion occurred at a private coal mine in Qitaihe, Xinhua reported.
The Qitaihe company's mining license expired on August 24 and its work safety license was withdrawn by the Heilongjiang Coal Mine Safety Supervision on September 5, according to SAWS.
Separately, 15 miners died in an explosion at a coal mine in Southwest China's Chongqing on the morning of October 31, Xinhua reported.
"Mines where accidents happen are usually outdated and poorly equipped to lower running costs," Han said.
SAWS carried out a secret investigation into small coal mines in North China's Shanxi Province on December 1, finding out that some mines that were reportedly closed by local governments last year are still active.
"In fact, although we have complete legal and administrative systems, strengthened supervision on coal mines, especially supervision of the production process, is lacking," said Han, adding that advanced technology and advanced equipment are also needed to promote safety in the coal industry on a whole.
