The Chinese government recently announced that it will close down around 4,000 small coal mines annually, over the next three years. Zhao Tiechui, head of the state administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision, announced this at Dongfeng, where a major coal mine explosion killed about 140 people in November this year.
The mines to be closed will include private coal mines and state coal pits. China has 24,000 small coal mines with annual output ranging from 10,000-30,000 tonnes, accounting for 70 per cent of its coal production.
Zhao claimed, "Closing small mines won't affect the country's demand for coal." The government was planning to establish 13 large coal production bases of 100 million tonnes annual capacity soon. He added that around 10,000 small coal mines would remain and effort would be made to reduce mining accidents.
These small coal mines have not only caused grave resource waste, with a low rate of recovery (around 10 per cent to 15 per cent), but also serious pollution and higher incidence of accidents, endangering the health and safety of coal miners.
China's mining industry has been known to cause a string of accidents -- this year alone at least 3,000 people have been killed.
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