The confirmed death toll at the Daping Coal Mine explosion in
Zhengzhou, Henan?Province,
hit 141 by October 30, with the seven miners still missing believed
to be dead. The blast occurred on October 20.
On the same day, another explosion in a mine near?Chongqing
Municipality in southwest China left 12 dead and one missing.
Also on the 20th, 29 miners were trapped underground by a flood at
a mine in the northern province of Hebei,
and chances of their survival were considered slim.
Two days later, 15 more men died in a mine gas explosion in the
southwestern province of
Guizhou.
And the list goes on: at press time, breaking news indicates
that a gas explosion in a Shanxi
Province mine has left 10 miners dead and six missing.
The State Administration of Work Safety reports that in the
first nine months of 2004, 4,153 people died in mining accidents, a
figure that the administration admits may be low because of
cover-ups or inaccurate reporting. Reports of coal mine accidents
are so frequent they seem commonplace, but the quick succession of
serious accidents in late October put mine safety into the public
as well as the official spotlight.
On October 23, People's Daily interviewed Professor
Wang Deming of the China
University of Mining and Technology to gain a clearer picture
of why these disasters take place with such alarming frequency.
People's Daily
(PD): What sort of gap is there between
China and developed countries in terms of mine safety?
Wang Deming: The main work-safety indexes are
accident and fatality rates per million tons. China has a poor
safety record among coal-producing countries: in fact, we can say
it has the poorest safety record. Last year, China produced 1.7
billion tons of coal. With 6,434 miners dead in accidents, the
fatality rate per million tons was nearly 4. Look at the US, a big
coal producer. Its output is 1 billion tons per year, but its death
toll is only 50 miners, putting the rate per million tons at 0.04.
The death rates per million tons in Russia and South Africa were
0.34 and 0.13. The fatality rate in developed countries averages
0.4. Although mine safety has improved since 2002, we have still a
long way to go.
Still, some mining operations in China are relatively sound.
Shenmu-Dongsheng Coal Mine, the country's largest, has a fatality
rate of 0.026; and at Yanzhou Coal Mine in Shandong it is 0.02.
PD: Why do coal mine accidents occur
so frequently in China?
Wang: China is short of gas and oil but has
plenty of coal, so coal accounts for a big part of its energy
supply structure. In 2003, coal supplied 74 percent of total energy
consumption. Over the next 20 years, coal will still account for
about 70 percent. The greater the production volume, the higher the
risk of accident. Some enterprises seek profits while ignoring
safety.
In addition, there is a large amount of gas in China's coal
mines, which raises accident risk. Complicated geological
conditions are another factor, with the coal lying in thin layers
deep underground.
PD: With these known conditions in
place, isn't there a human factor at work here?
Wang: You are right. The main reason is that
our country places too little emphasis on safety, which leads to
poor training for the miners, outdated safety equipment and an
obsolete management system. In a word, the applications of science
and technology in this area lag too far behind.
PD: Can you demonstrate the effect of
this, and compare China with more developed countries?
Wang: Let's take Shandong
Province as an example. Shandong is the best in terms of coal
mine safety in our country. From January through September, the
fatality rate per million tons in Shandong's coal mines was 0.42,
close to secondary developed countries, yet the gap is still
obvious.
First, mechanized excavation accounts for only 75.4 percent
overall, but in county-level coal mines the figure is zero.
Mechanized excavation in developed countries is at 100 percent, or
very close to it. When there is more mechanization, fewer miners
are needed and so accident and casualty rates drop.
Second, science and technology contribute 40 percent to coal
production in Shandong, compared with 60 percent or above in
developed countries.
Third, there is little input into scientific research. Funding
earmarked for this in Shandong is less than 1.5 percent of coal
sales. In the United States?it is 3 percent.
Fourth, the miners are poorly educated and trained and transient
farmers account for a large portion of the total workforce. Many
operators of small mines have poor safety awareness. In the US,
most miners are senior middle school graduates and management
personnel are college graduates.
Fifth, safety-related technology, equipment and facilities need
to be updated. Safety equipment is short in service life, poor in
applicability, low in precision and unreliable in function. There
is a dearth of special equipment to deal with accidents. The US has
advanced monitoring systems and its death toll is nearly zero in
accidents involving fire or flooding. Gas and coal dust explosions
seldom occur.
PD: China has a total of 28,000 coal
mines, 24,000 of them small ones that produce a combined 600
million tons per year, or one-third of the nation's total. What
special risks do small mines pose?
Wang: Their danger is obvious. First, there are
the obvious limitations brought by the absence of mechanized
excavation. They cannot achieve economies of scale and the result
is a severe waste of resources. From the angle of safety, low
investment, poor personnel quality and ineffective management mark
the operations of small mines. Of the 6,343 people killed in coal
mine accidents last year, only 1,773 worked in state-owned mines.
Accidents can be avoided if management is improved. Hopefully, the
"Shandong experience" will become more widespread.
PD: The death rate in Shandong
Province's coal mines is only one-tenth the national average. What
are the reasons for this? What can mine operators learn from the
Shandong experience?
Wang: As a matter of fact, conditions in
Shandong coal mines are not as good as they might seem. But at the
core of its improved situations is the slogan, "invigorating safety
by applying science and technology." It is putting this slogan into
practice to improve production safety and to establish effective
systems in all areas.
Investment in science and technology in Shandong coal mines
reached 1.2 billion yuan (US$139.9 million) in the past three
years, with an average annual growth rate of 40 percent. Digitized
remote monitoring is now applied in 40 percent of mines. The
province leads the country in terms of mechanization. Following the
reform of the system and the closing of small township operations,
there are 369 producing coal mines in the province, most of which
are state-owned and with high production efficiency standards.
The State Coal Industry Association named 37 high-production,
high-efficiency coal mines last year,?seven of which were in
Shandong. Coal production at these seven mines accounts for a third
of the province's total, and their fatality rate for every million
tons of coal is only 0.001. Other important economic and
technological indicators also meet the standards of developed
countries.
PD: One of the reasons for mining
accidents is the lack of safety equipment, isn't it?
Wang: This is a longstanding problem resulting
from operators' mistaken thinking. Safety equipment requires a very
large lump-sum investment. Many operators of small mines trust to
luck and are loathe to spend money on safety equipment. In a highly
dangerous industry like coal mining, the ratio of safety equipment
investment to benefit should be 1:7. When an accident happens, the
cost of dealing with the resultant problems is usually 1.5 times
that of investment in safety, and that calculation does not include
losses caused by the halt in production.
Also, studies have shown that before an accident causing serious
casualties occurs, there are usually many small accidents, events
with no apparent losses but creating potential hazards. The ratio
of large to small accidents, to zero-loss accidents and to the
creation of new hazards is 1:29:300:1200. If coal mines improve
their management and prevent these hidden dangers from manifesting
themselves, accidents can be avoided.
PD: Coal output is increasing every
year. When will the safety situation improve?
Wang: According to the state's plan, by 2007
coal mine safety will be improving steadily. By 2010 the
improvement will be obvious, with the national fatality rate per
million tons of coal falling below 1.6. By 2020 the situation will
be fundamentally improved, with the death rate down to about 0.4, a
figure in line with that of developed countries, and with no major
accidents.
The plan is good, but it needs a great deal of investment in
manpower and materials. The task is a tough one, but developed
countries had the same experience. In the US, the death toll in
coal mine accidents decreased from 2,000 in the 1960s to 1,000 in
the 1970s. By closing most small coal mines, expanding average
scale of production and using intensive methods, it has finally
attained its goals.
PD: In addition to lowering the
fatality rate, what problems need to be addressed?
Wang: Other problems involve pollution caused
by damage to the earth's substrata. To solve the problems, we must
reduce environmental pollution by controlling earth subsidence in a
timely way. We must also solve the problem of damage to underground
water resources during the process of coal exploitation. In some
areas, the underground water level has dropped to only 600 or 700
meters. Moreover, we should recycle gas as developed countries do.
Some coal mines have already started doing these things. Basically,
we must exploit resources in a way that is advantageous to the
environment.
(People's Daily, translated by Guo Xiaohong and Li
Jingrong for China.org.cn, November 5, 2004)