Three high-ranking government officials in north China's Shanxi Province have been sacked and kicked out of the Party for taking bribes from a mine owner.

The provincial Party disciplinary watchdog named them as Wang Yanfeng, former vice mayor of Datong city, Shen Gongyuan, former director of Datong's Public Security Bureau, and Gong Anku, ex-director of the Shanxi Administration of Work Safety.

Shanxi officials launched an investigation last April after the Ministry of Supervision found evidence indicating that a mine owner, Li Kewei, had offered bribes to cover up mine accidents and obtain operating licenses.

Wang was found to have taken 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) from Li after Wang helped him keep two coal mines running in August 2007. The two mines were supposed to shut when mining resources were consolidated.

The investigation found that Shen asked for 29 million yuan in cash from Li in connection with the construction of a coal transport station in the first half of 2006. Shen also made Li give him a car worth 830,000 yuan for providing protection for the illegal operation of the mines.

Gong was found to have accepted 100,000 euros (US$130,900) for issuing a document to help reserve a mine for Li in 2007.

Since the second half of 2008, victims' families have reported several times that Li concealed accidents in his coal mines in Datong.

A joint investigation team by the Ministry of Supervision and the State Administration of Work Safety was set up in December 2008, and it found that Li operated seven coal mines in Zuoyun County and Nanjiao District in Datong and had concealed five accidents in which 13 people were killed between 2002 and 2004.

Gong was the head of the provincial work safety agency from 2000 to 2008.

In recent years, a string of serious mining accidents has plagued the province.

Shanxi Province is China's second-largest coal producing area after the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.