Rescuers found the remains of three more miners killed as the result of a November 27 explosion at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province over the weekend.
The finding brought the death toll to 169 as of 9am on Saturday.
The killed include 167 miners working underground and two workers in the ground generator room, sources from the rescue headquarters said.
Rescuers were still searching for two missing miners yesterday.
The explosion happened at 9:40pm at a mine run by the Qitaihe branch of the Longmei Mining (Group) Co, Ltd - a state-owned enterprise.
The latest figures show that 243 miners were working underground when the blast occurred and only 73 of them have been rescued.
In the meantime, the bodies of 155 dead miners have been identified by their relatives, and 117 have been cremated.
The Heilongjiang provincial government held an emergency videophone conference immediately after the accident, ordering a production safety overhaul for all coal mines in the province.
The overhaul targeted such problems as mines running overtime, poor ventilation systems, improper equipment to deal with coal dust, and overly high gas density underground.
Vice Governor Liu Haisheng announced on Saturday that the provincial government will close down 200 small coal mines with serious production safety problems by the end of this year.
The official said many small coal mines in Heilongjiang, including some run by the state, have more than one serious safety problem and must stop production to clear up the hidden dangers.
Zhao Tiechui, head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision, also said on Saturday that China will shut down 4,000 small coal mines annually over the next three years.
"We can at most keep 10,000 or so small coal mines open," said Zhao, who also promised to drastically reduce the incidence of major accidents at coal mines within two years.
China currently has 24,000 small coal mines with an annual production output ranging from 10,000 tons to 30,000 tons each, which account for 70 percent of the country's coal mines.
The small coal mines have caused a grave waste of resources, with a low rate of recovery, which averages between 10 and 15 percent, serious pollution and a higher number of accidents, posing a long-standing problems endangering safety at coal mines in the country.
Those to be closed will include privately owned coal mines and state-owned coal pits, Zhao said. He added that restructuring and mergers will be adopted in the process of closure.
"The closing of small coal mines won't affect the country's demand for coal," said Zhao, adding the country has approved the establishment of 13 large coal production bases capable of turning out over 100 million tons of coal each.
(Xinhua)