The country's top coal producing province of Shanxi said it would close its small mines by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, 30 miners survived last week's gas explosion at a coal mine in Fuxin City, northeastern Liaoning Province, although one miner is still missing, an official said yesterday.
Zhou Lixian, a member of the working group to deal with the aftermath of the Fuxin blast, said 213 miners were killed in the disaster and the search for the final miner would continue.
The disaster occurred on February 14 at the state-run Sunjiawan coal mine. He said 330 of the 574 miners on duty escaped.
Sunjiawan belongs to the Fuxin Coal Industry Group. The group's mines were ordered to halt production for safety overhauls.
Zhou said 204 bodies have been identified.
Meanwhile, Shanxi defined small mines as those that produced less than 90,000 tons of coal per year.
Sources from the provincial government said it is taking measures to control and regulate the industry and protect its miners.
Under the plan, the province will eventually limit the number of coal mines to about 3,000 and will no longer approve new mines that produce less than 300,000 tons a year.
Safety has become a big issue in Shanxi, the source said. The provincial death rate per million tons of coal dropped to a record low of 0.98 last year. Still, 485 people died from 184 mine accidents in the province in 2004.
Last year, the government revised coal excavation methods in 2,256 mines - about 53.8 percent of the province's total.
A system to monitor and control gas was established as well last year. That involved 3,418 mines or 86 percent of the total.
Last year, Shanxi closed 97 small coal mines where frequent accidents were reported.
The improvements helped the province produce 493 million tons of coal last year.
The proportion of small mines dropped from 76.7 percent to 39.1 percent in 2004.
Instead of rashly expanding production, Shanxi aims to integrate its coal resources and further optimize the industry in the next three years by limiting annual coal production to 600 million tons, the source said.
The province plans to consolidate its 6,500 mines by 2007, the source said. According to the provincial government, that includes 50 large mines with an annual output of 900,000 tons each and 500 medium-sized mines with yearly production between 300,000 and 900,000 tons each.
(Xinhua)