A woman waits for news about her husband, who is among the  miners trapped in the Xishui Coal Mine in Shanxi Province. — Xinhua

Sixty miners were confirmed dead yesterday in an explosion that rocked the Xishui Colliery in northern China's Shanxi Province around noon on Saturday, according to the rescue headquarters at the site.
Rescuers found the bodies of 19 trapped miners in the Kangjiayao Coal Mine, and 41 others were discovered in the Xishui Coal Mine, which was running despite an earlier order to cease operations because of safety problems.
Police detained the four owners of the coal mine.
Last night, eight rescue teams continued to search for nine miners still trapped underground.
The powerful blast ripped through the Xishui Coal Mine in Shuozhou, a city in a major coal-mining area in Shanxi, and immediately caused a wall to collapse in the neighboring Kangjiayao mine.
Li Yizhong, director of the General Administration of Work Safety, and Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, arrived at Shuozhou early yesterday to direct the rescue operation.
"Some family members of the killed miners have arrived at the site. Each family will be compensated at least 200,000 yuan (US$24,300)," said an official with the team in charge of compensation and funeral arrangements.
Built in 1993, the Xishui mine is licensed for an annual output of 150,000 tons of coal. But the mine was ordered to suspend production after safety problems last November, said an official with the provincial supervision office of coal mine production.
"In defiance of the order, however, mine owners restarted production this year," said the official.
The Kangjiayao mine is running with government approval.
The situation at Xishui is not unusual. Many profit-driven mine operators continue to operate unsafe facilities, often with tragic consequences. Saturday's explosion came just two days after a mine blast in in the southwestern city of Chongqing killed at least 18.
China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, killing more than 6,000 miners last year. Investigators often blame indifference to safety rules and a lack of ventilation equipment needed to clear the gas that seeps from coal beds.
After a string of mine disasters, including the worst in a half-century that killed 214 people in February, the central government pledged to spend more than 50 billion yuan (US$6.1 billion) in the coming years to improve safety.
(Xinhua/Reuters)