China is to close all small coal mines by the end of next year and aims to reduce major accidents by 25 percent over five years in a drive to clean up the world's deadliest mining industry.
Some 3,341 coal mine explosions, floods and other accidents claimed nearly 6,000 lives in China last year, as mine owners - motivated by soaring profits - pushed production past safe limits to fuel China's booming economy.
The disasters, making newspaper headlines almost on a daily basis and some killing several hundred miners at a time, prompted President Hu Jintao to declare last week that China's development should not come at the expense of human life.
All coal mines with an annual output under 30,000 tons would be shut down by the end of 2007, the China Dailysaid today, quoting the head of the national coal mine safety watchdog.
"The overhaul of small coal mines is necessary because they are more vulnerable to accidents," Mr Zhao was quoted as saying, adding the move also aimed at encouraging mergers.
Yesterday, Wang Xianzheng, another top work safety official, told a conference that major coal mine accidents in 2010 should be down by 25 per cent from the figure last year, Xinhua news agency said.
Of the 2.2 billion tons of China's coal output in 2005, 750 million tons had been mined without safety guarantees, he said.
China had already closed 5,535 dangerous coal mines nationwide in past months, state media said earlier this week.