China's death mines

• Accident: At least 19 killed by the explosion of an illegal coal mine in China
• Mining: An explosion in a coal mine causes the deaths of 22 people in China
• Shandong Province 172 people caught in a coal mine flooding east China

China cries its buried miners. There are too many graves with the names of those men of the peak and the shovel that have warmed the country for decades. Many have died from entering the wells with rusty machinery and light generators that did not work. Others for gas explosions. And there are also those that have fallen after silicosis, breathing for years the carbon particles that are in the air. Because we talk about a world power that has more dead miners in the lunar calendar than there are days in a year.

Practically, every few weeks the Asian giant gets up with the news of a gas explosion or a flood in some mining basin. This time it has happened in the southwest, in Gaunglong, in the province of Guizhou. In the early hours of this Tuesday, 23 miners have been trapped underground. Seven have managed to leave. The rest, 14, have run out of oxygen before rescuers could save them.

Just three days earlier, 800 kilometers from there, in Shanmushu, within Sichuan Province, there were five other miners killed after the well where they worked was flooded. Over the weekend, an emergency operation was set up that managed to rescue 329 people from the mine. Today there are still 13 miners trapped inside the quarry.

Since October, there are already 37 people who have died in five such accidents in a country that prides itself on its economic prosperity, but occupies the podium to house the world's deadliest coal mines.

Ask the families of the 15 people who died on November 18 after a gas explosion in a Pingyao mine. At that time, officials said the accident was caused by "broken laws and regulations." Nine months before, in that same place, another explosion buried another 21 people.

Also, in June, a dozen men were buried in a Jilin mine after an earthquake of magnitude 2.3 on the Richter scale, inside a well that already buried a decade ago another 40 people. If we continue with the data, we see that in 2018 only 333 died in the Chinese mines. Although, according to state statistics, "the situation is improving, since they died 13% less than the previous year." Especially because of explosions of methane, a gas trapped inside the layers of coal. Mechanical errors or the use of inappropriate underground explosives trigger continuous consecutive explosions of coal dust.

All this continues to happen while from Beijing they claim that they are fighting to close coal mines with the purpose of betting on a cleaner energy transition. The National Coal Association of China reported that 2,802 mines had already been closed in the last five years to promote sustainable growth.

On the other hand, according to the documents of the National Energy Administration, this year the production of 141 million tons of coal has been authorized, increasing 2.6% over the previous year. According to official data, China produced 3,060 million tons of coal in the first 10 months of this year, 4.5% more than in the same period of 2018.

A few days ago, the Reuters agency, citing sources from the National Coal Mining Security Administration, reported that the authorities are conducting a round of safety inspections at coal mines throughout the country, with the aim of " take strong measures against miners who are operating beyond their planned production or approved capacity. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• China
• Asia
• Environment

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