Industry shake-up to ensure safer coal mines
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-29 06:51

Ma Huazhi stands in front of a clean and spacious pigsty and smiles: "My new life started here gone are the days I worried about accidents."

Just one year ago, Ma was the manager of a township coal mine with designed production capacity of 60,000 tons annually in Luocun Town near Zibo, a city in Shandong.

After 12 months' preparation, he has turned his mine into a modern multiplication farm and is about to try his hand at raising pigs of fine breed.

The former workshops have been adapted into 24 pig houses, including structures to house pregnant pigs, and for farrowing, nursing and fattening.

The miners have been re-recruited as raisers.

"We plan to produce more than 10,000 pigs next year and build our farm into the largest pig multiplication farm north of the Yangtze River," Ma said ambitiously.

Before Ma's coal mine was closed last year, it had been running smoothly, with recoverable reserves of 340,000 tons and all required licences.

"Our mines were closed not because we had any safety problems but simply because our production capacity was low," Ma said.

The site is just one of thousands of small coal mines that have been closed, or converted for other production such as textiles products, across the country in recent years.

In Zhangqiu County, near provincial capital Jinan, the local government decided to ensure every coal mine has an annual production of more than 90,000 tons before 2008.

After closing 28 small pits that failed to meet required standards, the county merged the other qualified small township mines into five large State-owned coal companies.

It means the sites can share more advanced technology and equipment, which has seen both their production and safety standards improved remarkably.

Lu Gaoqiang, an official with the province's coal mine safety authorities, said the province began to reorganize coal mine resources as early as 2000.

Ma Nianjie, a professor from the School of Resources and Safety Engineering under Beijing-based China University of Mining and Technology, said: "To close small pits is a necessary means to protect coal resources as well as improving work safety."

"Driven by profits, owners of small coal mines often exploit their mines in a devastating way.

"There has been intolerable waste on resources and cause destructive damage to the environment."

According to statistics from the State Administration of Work Safety, China had 23,388 small coal pits with average annual production of less than 30,000 tons by the end of last year.

Small mines account for one-third of the nation's total production of coal, but contribute to more than two-thirds of the death toll.

He Guojia, vice-president of the China Coal Information Institute, said the primary concern of the small mine owners was how to withdraw investment in buying mining rights as quickly as possible.

"Therefore the short-sighted owners always begrudge spending money on improving infrastructure to raise safety standards," He said.

He said as a result, while small coal mines can often yield profits, money is rarely spent on improving production and safety systems.

"Small mines change hands every two or three years on average," He said. "Their owners usually choose to quit the industry after making money from the mines."

The State Administration of Work Safety has promised to close 4,000 coal mines that fail to meet safety standards by the end of this year as part of measures to improve work safety.

In recent years, the Chinese Government has adopted a series of regulations and measures to try to boost safety levels.

The Shandong provincial government stipulated that if more than three people die in a coal mining accident due to negligence, its manager will be immediately removed from his position and be barred from serving as a coal mine manager for life.

Zhang Lizhuang, manager of a State-owned coal mine in Zhangqiu near Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, said his annual salary would be cut by half if an accident due to negligence killed one worker, while he would be dismissed if two died.

"We hope society can understand the great pressure we are shouldering," said Zhang Yingmin, vice-president of the Yankuang Group, one of the leading coal companies in China.

"I might lose everything overnight if a major accident happens."

However, the situation remains grave, as official statistics show that in the first nine months this year, 4,228 people had been killed in 2,337 coal mine accidents.

This year China has seen four major coal disasters, each killing more than 100 people.

Multiple problems

"The government has attached great importance to coal mine safety but it is difficult to solve problems in a short time," Ma said.

"The primary factor standing behind the frequent coal mine disasters is the backward technology and inadequate input on safety measures," Ma said.

Ma said it was only in the past three years that the price of coal has risen substantially, leaving more profits for the coal enterprises to upgrade technology and improve safety standard.

However, the "safety debt" is hard to make up within a short time.

According to the State Administration of Work Safety, the State-owned coal enterprises have to provide an additional 50 billion yuan (US$6.2 billion) to safety input to reach the required level. And one-third of their production equipment is still being used after expiration.

Of the 1.96 billion tons produced in 2004, 760 million tons were produced without adequate safety guarantees and 200 million without any safety conditions at all.

Many coal mines, including some large State-owned coal mines, use backward mining technology and worn-out facilities.

"During the time between 1996 and 2001, the whole industry was caught in a very difficult situation as the coal was sold at a price lower than cost," He said.

"It was during this time that the coal enterprises lost profits as well as skilled technicians and workers."

"The second factor of the problem is that China depends heavily on coal as energy," Ma said.

Coal is China's main source of power, making up 68 per cent of the overall energy consumption in 2004.

"The coal production has doubled in the past four years, but still fails to meet the huge demand," Ma said. "There is widespread overloaded production."

Ma said the geological conditions for most of China's coal mines are relatively unfavourable.

For example, 51 per cent of China's coal mines contain high levels of gas and only 3 per cent of mines are open pits. In contrast, more than 70 per cent of the coal mines in the United States are open pits.

"A poor competence of the coal industry workers is another factor," Ma said.

"The average income level of the coal industry is perhaps one of the lowest in the country, making it difficult to recruit skilled workers. Therefore they have to hire farmers-turned-labourers with little education," Ma said.

(China Daily 12/29/2005 page5)