President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen
Jiabao on Saturday ordered the provincial government of central
China's Henan Province to spare no efforts in saving the 42 miners
trapped in the flooded Sigou Coal Mine and arresting the runaway
owners of the mine.
The flooding accident took place at 11:40?PM Friday in the
county of Xin'an.
Seventy-six miners were working under the shaft of the mine and
only 34 managed to escape.
Vice Premier Huang Ju
and State Councilor Hua
Jianmin were also concerned about the trapped miners and
ordered a 14-member working team, headed by Liang Jiakun, vice
director of the State Administration of Work Safety to coordinate
and organize the rescue operation and disaster relief work.
Senior officials in Henan were already at the accident site to
supervise the rescue operation.
As of 10:00?PM Saturday, more than 200 rescue workers were
racing against the clock to pump out water in an attempt to reach
the missing.
The water level underground was remarkably declining, said the
rescuers, and the concentration of toxic gas was falling enormously
as six water pumps were working.
The rescue headquarters said the water could be pumped up in 21
hours, adding that chances are still there for the survival of the
trapped miners.
China will shut down 4,000 small coal mines annually in the
forthcoming three years, said Zhao Tiechui,? head of the State
Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision on Saturday.
Zhao made the remark at an on-the-spot meeting specially
convened at Dongfeng Coal Mine, run by the Qitaihe branch of the
Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd. in Heilongjiang, where a major coal
mine explosion took place on Nov. 27, killing 169 miners so
far.
"We can at most keep 10,000 or so small coal mines," said Zhao,
who also promised to drastically reduce the incidence of major
accidents with coal mines in two years.
China now has 24,000 small coal mines with the annual production
output ranging from 10,000 tons to 30,000 tons, which account for
70 percent of the country's number of coal mining ventures.
The small coal mines have not only caused grave resource waste,
with a low rate of recovery, which is averaged between 10 percent
to 15 percent, but also serious pollution and higher incidence of
accidents, posing a long-standing problem endangering safety at
coal mines in the country, according to Zhao.
Those to be closed will include privately owned coal mines and
state owned coal pits, and the methods such as restructuring and
mergers will be adopted in the process of closure, said Zhao.
"Closing of small coal mines won't affect the country's demand
for coal," said Zhao, adding the country had approved establishment
of 13 large coal production bases each capable of turning out over
100 million tons of coal annually.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2005)