By Tuesday, China had reported 5,290 coal mine shafts closed or
soon closed, according to sources with the State Administration of
Work Safety (SAWS) on Wednesday.
The figure is much higher than the earlier goal of 4,000, said
the work safety watchdog at a video conference.
China has suspended production of a total of 12,990 coal mine
shafts for consolidation, said the SAWS.
Before Jan.1, 2006, the SAWS published a list of 2,728 coal mine
shafts required to be closed in two batches.
A list of over 2,500 other coal mine shafts to be closed will be
published soon, said the SAWS.
Over 23,329 coal mine enterprises have submitted applications
for work safety licenses. Among them, 22,231 applications have been
received. 17,111 have already received licenses.
Enterprises that did not submit an application after July 13
last year, were refused licenses previously or were confirmed as
unqualified after check have to stop production for
consolidation.
Coal mine gas checks and monitoring have been made in 2,296
gas-intensive shafts in 20 coal production provinces of the
country.
So far, 5,711 measures for controlling coal mine gas have been
proposed by experts and technological improvement projects valued
at 55 billion yuan (US$6.8 billion) have been submitted to the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said the SAWS.
(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2006)