Xinjiang mine disaster blamed on owner's greed By Guan Xiaofeng in Beijing and?Aheng Caixiong in Guangzhou (China Daily) Updated: 2005-07-16 07:12
A gas monitor's alarm at the coal mine where 83 miners were killed on Monday
was ignored for three hours before the natural gas build-up exploded, a State
official said on Friday.
What's more, Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety,
told a national work safety forum in Beijing that the Shenlong Coal Mine in
Fukang, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, did not even have a ventilation
shaft.
The monitor showed that the gas density in the tunnel had risen to four times
higher than the level that set off the alarm, Li said. But no one paid
attention, and miners went underground without taking any safety measures.
"In the final analysis, the tragedy was due to the mine owner's being blinded
by profits and trifling with workers' lives," Li said.
The investigation showed that the privately owned coal mine had serious
ventilation problems and had no safe production licence.
In January, the Xinjiang Administration of Coal Mine Safety rejected the
mine's application for a licence after detecting 14 safety violations.
Even so, the mine continued to operate and yielded 180,000 tons of coal in
the first six months of the year when its designed production capacity called
for only 30,000 tons during the entire year.
Li promised that safety investigators will issue their
report in three months and bring those who should be blamed to justice.
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