The mine, belonging to the Longteng Mining Co., Ltd. in Yongding County had been suspended of mining operation for a week. Eight miners entered the mine to check mining equipment on Friday, ignoring the lack of ventilation.

    Three workers died on the spot, and the other five workers were still in bad condition in hospital.

    So far, the mine has been sealed off.  Local government officials are carrying out in-depth investigation in the accident.

    The explosion occurred at 4:45 a.m. in a coal mine belonging to the Henan Hebi Coal (group) company.  By 3:20 p.m. 34 people were found dead.

    Senior provincial government officials have rushed to the site to direct rescue efforts.  The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

    Two bodies have been raised up to the ground by press time, said Feng Shubao, head of the rescue team.

    Xu Guangchun, secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and vice provincial governor Shi Jichun have rushed to the site to guide the rescue work.

    Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Supervision, also arrived at the site to direct the rescue efforts, heading an expert team.

    Thirty-four miners were killed in a gas explosion in a coal mine in Hebi City, central China's Henan Province, early Monday morning.

    The explosion occurred at 4:45 a.m. in a coal mine belonging to the Henan Hebi Coal (group) Company. By 3:20 p.m. 34 people were found dead.

    As a state-run mining group, Hebi is one of the key major state-owned enterprises in Henan. Its total assets reached 4.636 billion yuan (565 million US dollars) last year.

It seems that mine accidents don't count for much in the state with police inured to the accidents, whether in legal or illegal mines. In the latest instance on Sep 29, at least 10 women died while extracting coal illegally from the Rajrappa colliery of the Central Coalfield Limited (CCL).

Police registered a complaint against eight people, including three CCL officials, but no action has been initiated till now.

In another accident at CCL's Central Saunda Mines in Hazaribagh in June, FIRs were lodged against eight CCL officials, including its Chief Managing Director R.P. Ritolia. However, all the officials got bail from the lower court and the police are yet to file charge-sheets against them.

Official sources estimate that illegal mining is going on in more than 200 mines under the nose of police.

"If the police take action, it will open a Pandora's box, which in turn could land them in trouble," independent legislator Stephen Marandi said.

Former union coal minister Shibu Soren had also alleged that illegal mining was rampant in the state involving police and CCL authorities.

Last week's incident is a classic example. According to sources, the incident could land many CCL officials in trouble as the company's security guards were posted when the illegal extraction was going on.

But police, instead of taking strict action, just delayed matters to help CCL officials mitigate evidences, sources said.

They constituted a task force, comprising CCL security staff and police, to check illegal mining.

"This move is like asking the cat to protect milk," Marandi said.

    The accident happened at 10:45 a.m. in Yatuer Colliery, Baicheng County. Eleven miners escaped from the disaster, two of whom were injured, local officials said.

    Rescue work is under way.

    Thirty-four miners died in a gas explosion at a coal mine in central China's Henan Province early Monday morning.

    Fourteen miners were trapped and 11 escaped from the disaster after the accident happened at 10:45 a.m. in Yatuer Colliery, Baicheng County.

    Rescuers said there is slim hope for the other 12 trapped miners to survive.

    Rescue work is still under way, but rescuers said another blast is possible because of thick gas density underground. They are taking measures to reduce the density.

    A total of 19 residents in Chaoyang City, also in Liaoning Province, sneaked into the Xiaomagou Molybdenum Mine in Huludao City around 5 p.m. on Tuesday for illegal mining, said an official with the mining section of the Liaoning Provincial Work Safety Bureau.

    While walking in a passage of the molybdenum mine, six people were suffocated to death with four others missing. Nine have returned safely to the ground. They were detained by local police.

    Molybdenum is a kind of silvery-white, hard and transition metal. It is used in making alloys, electrodes and catalysts.

    The cause of the accident is under further investigation.

    Nine of the corpses have been hoisted to the ground, a local official in charge of the rescue operation said.

    Twenty-five miners were working in the coal pit, when the gas explosion took place around 10:47 a.m. Tuesday at a joint-stock coal mine in Yatuer of Baicheng County on the southern slope of Mount. Tianshan. A total of 14 miners were trapped underground. Eleven others escaped.

    The searching for the four missing miners is still going on.

    The coal mine is a licensed coal production unit with a designed annual capacity of 30,000 tons. It was contracted to a private businessman two years ago. In accordance with relevant state regulations, the coal mine should be closed at the end of this year.

    The National General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has called on each coal mine to compile the booklets based on their own circumstances and update them with applicable information.

    The agency says the handbook should detail the coal mine worker's rights and obligations, typical colliery disasters and corresponding measures when they occur.

    Hot lines for informing illegal behavior and hidden security vulnerabilities must be published with the books.

    Additionally, the compilation is required to include matching illustrations and should be concise and comprehensive.

Public hearings were scheduled in seven states "to get a better handle on the scope of the problem" and develop strategies to deal with it, said David G. Dye, acting director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

"Alcohol and drug abuse by miners threatens the safety of their colleagues, and that cannot be tolerated," Dye said.

The issue surfaced in eastern Kentucky two years ago when state and federal inspectors, investigating the death of a coal miner in an explosion, found a bag of marijuana inside a mine near Prestonsburg.

The inspectors also took a statement from a co-worker who said he saw two miners snorting crushed pain killers.

A task force in Kentucky is already looking at several recommendations, including requiring drug screenings for all miners involved in injury accidents and keeping a registry of names of miners who fail drug tests.

"It's important that we monitor these miners with problems," said Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association.

But Mike Dalpiaz, vice president of the United Mine Workers of America district office in Price, Utah, said he doesn't believe the federal agency will find widespread evidence of substance abuse among miners nationally.

"Nobody wants drugs or alcohol in the workplace, period," he said. "But I've been in the industry for 30 years. I don't see it as a problem."

In a notice published in the Federal Register this week, mangers at the Mine Safety agency said they will be gathering information to determine if additional regulations are needed. They want to determine what kinds of safeguards mining companies already have in place and what the costs of any proposed federal action would be to the industry.

The agency will be gathering information for all types of mining, not just coal.

Public meetings have been scheduled in Salt Lake City on Oct. 24; St. Louis on Oct. 26; Birmingham, Ala., on Oct. 28; Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 31; Charleston, W.Va., on Nov. 2; Pittsburgh on Nov. 4; and Arlington, Va., on Nov. 8.

At least 10 miners were killed and 18 more were missing after a coal mine in southwest China flooded late Tuesday.

The tragedy, which happened at the Longtan Coal Mine in Sichuan province, coincided with 10 people being killed by an unknown gas at an illegal pit in northeast Liaoning province, Xinhua news agency reported.

So far this week, four mine disasters have claimed the lives of at least 68 workers and left 22 others missing.

Survivors are rarely found from the regular gas explosions that rock mines in China, but the chances of finding people alive in floods have proven to be marginally better.

Nine escaped from the molybdenum mine in the Gangtun township of Liaoning and were arrested, Xinhua said. Molybdenum is a silvery white metal used in making alloys and electrodes.

While much of China was shut down for the National Day holiday week, the unrelenting demand for coal to drive the country's booming economy and rapid industrialization forces many mines to remain open, around the clock.

It is the voracious demand that results in so many accidents, with safety procedures ignored in the quest for profits.

On Monday, 34 miners were killed and 19 injured in a gas explosion at a pit in the central province of Henan.

The mine was operated by a large state-run enterprise -- the Henan Hebi Coal company -- but even it ignored safety procedures, government officials admitted.

In a statement Wednesday, the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration said problems existed in gas ventilation management and workplace management at the mine as well as production safety.

According to the bureau, the Henan mine was operating with outdated equipment.

It ordered the company, which had assets worth 4.6 billion yuan (567 million dollars) in 2004 and runs eight major mines with annual production at over seven million tons, to close all its pits to check safety equipment.

The demands follow an order from Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday for mine bosses to do more to prevent accidents.

His comments came after a gas blast in the northwest Xinjiang region at the privately-run Yateur mine, in which 14 workers died, according to Xinhua.

China relies on coal for two-thirds of its energy needs and is not expected to shift significantly to other fuel sources for years to come.

In an attempt to improve safety, China in August ordered 7,000 coal mines to suspend operations by the end of the year.

But critics argue that shutdowns only exacerbate coal shortages and force mines elsewhere to increase capacity at the expense of safety.

Coal miners killed by cave-ins and explosions and those who suffered from black lung have their names enshrined on a memorial next to David A. Lucas' house.

Other miners who no longer work underground have their names on affidavits, saying the federal government forced them out of business.

Lucas doesn't want his name in either place.

He and a group of independent miners are fighting what they describe as a campaign of harassment by inspectors working for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The clash has spawned a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, inspired a filmmaker to chronicle the miners' plight and led the miners to fight citations in court -- with or without lawyers.

"I don't think the feds are going to win, because we are hard-core," said Lucas, referring to those who run the family-operated coal mines still open in Pennsylvania's historic anthracite region. "I'm going to fight them until the day I die."

Once, hundreds of independent mines operated between Harrisburg and Scranton. The number has dwindled in recent years to about a dozen.

At least three former anthracite miners, Kenneth Richter, Michael Miller and Frank Neumeister, have signed affidavits that they closed their mines because of overzealous MSHA safety enforcement.

Cindy Rothermel, co-owner of a family-run mine near Pottsville, said that in a 20-year period that ended in December, the mine was never closed. Since then, it has been ordered closed seven times by MSHA inspectors.

"It's just nickel-and-diming everybody to death," she said.

Rothermel said she sees a pattern in which MSHA will "pick on two or three mines until they have those mines out of business, and then they will move on to the next two or three."

The miners' claims of government harassment have triggered an investigation by the inspector general's office of the U.S. Labor Department, which oversees MSHA.

"We had a request, and we sent in a team," said Cathy Gromek, a spokeswoman for the inspector general's office. "We are looking at MSHA practices."

Gromek declined to provide specifics.

But miners said questions asked by investigators have focused on inspectors working for the MSHA District 1 office in Wilkes-Barre, headed by John Kuzar and William Sparvieri.

Kuzar was not available, and Sparvieri declined comment. Suzanne Bohnert, a spokeswoman at MSHA's national headquarters in Virginia, said the agency was "cooperating with the inspector general's ongoing investigation."

Miners said the number of MSHA citations issued to them skyrocketed after Kuzar arrived in the District 1 office about five years ago.

A Maryland lawyer hired by some of the miners, Adele Abrams, has referred to Kuzar in interviews as "Captain Ahab."

"You get the sense that Kuzar's ... last act will be to put the padlock on the last anthracite mine in America. And that would be a shame," Abrams said.

Lucas said he cannot afford a lawyer. A grandfather of four, he dropped out of high school to be a miner 40 years ago.

He is 54, has failing joints and high blood pressure, and said he only made about $4,000 last year because MSHA repeatedly forced him to close his mine.

Last month, he traveled to Harrisburg to face off with MSHA in a federal courtroom.

"I am ashamed of myself. Years ago, I would have punched them in the mouth and served my sentence," he said.

The Lucas proceeding centered on MSHA citations. Lucas was represented by Earl Kieffer, a 75-year-old former miner and leader of an association of independent miners.

"I was representing David ... because I know the mining business upside down and sideways," Kieffer said.

The government was represented by Brian Mohin, a Philadelphia-based Labor Department lawyer. Mohin, contacted by telephone, said he could not discuss the case.

Kieffer said several MSHA claims against Lucas -- including one that he failed to perform a pre-shift inspection of his mine -- were dropped. Fines against Lucas were reduced from $5,600 to $840.

Lucas thought of it as a victory.

"If you aren't a liar, you don't have to worry when you are on the stand testifying," he said. "They gave me bogus fines and shut me down for the stupidest reasons."

The day after the court appearance, Lucas received a notice from MSHA that outlined a new set of fines totaling $9,800.

A Philadelphia filmmaker, Marc Brodzik, said he is creating a documentary about the demise of family-run anthracite mines under government's heavy hand.

"These guys are getting harassed. It is big business and big government, shafting these guys under the guise of safety enforcement.

"It is sad that it is these 12 families left, and they are struggling to put food on the table," Brodzik said.

The shrine in Lucas' yard includes the name of Joseph "Pappy" Lucas, who was David Lucas' grandfather. His late father, Ray A. "Checky" Lucas, also was a miner.

Lucas' brother, Darryl Lucas, is a partner at the mine. It is frustrating to have a federal inspector stop by and issue a citation for a mine that has passed inspections, again and again, for years, he said.

"What we know is what we learned off our dads, and they learned off their dads before them," Darryl Lucas said. "How can this guy show up and tell us it's all wrong?"

But the direct cause of death remained a mystery after a pathologist said it could not be ascertained.

Christopher Lindup, 58, from Bristol, got into difficulties during a night dive at Vobster Quay Diving Centre, Somerset, in September 2004.

Coroner Tony Williams recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

The inquest was told Mr Lindup believed he had run out of oxygen and aborted the dive but seconds after returning to the lake surface he disappeared under the water.

Mr Lindup previously worked as a head teacher at both Lawrence Weston School and Merrywood School in Bristol - he retired in 2000.

Diving colleagues said he was an "experienced and competent" diver who had completed more than 60 dives.

The inquest in Wells, Somerset, heard Mr Lindup and regular diving companions Clive Finn and Gary Ward visited the quarry on the evening of 30 September for a routine night dive.

Oxygen problems

Mr Finn, a diver with more than 10 years' experience, and Mr Lindup intended to complete a 45 minute dive, looking at old wrecks and buildings submerged when the quarry had been flooded.

Halfway through the dive Mr Lindup signalled he had run out of oxygen.

Mr Finn attached his own oxygen supply to Mr Lindup and they swam to the surface.

Mr Ward, who had not been diving with them because of a cold, threw a rescue buoy to them.

Mr Finn said he let go of Mr Lindup who was still conscious and talking, so he could grab the buoy.

He said: "I swam out a few feet to get the buoy and as I turned back to Chris he just wasn't there, there was no screaming or splashing.

"What's really upsetting is that we were only 10ft from the shore."

After two attempts Mr Finn managed to bring him to the surface. Attempts to resuscitate him failed and he was taken to Bath Royal United Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Consultant pathologist Dr Hugh White, who carried out a post mortem examination on Mr Lindup, found that he died "following a period of immersion underwater".

He said there were "no classical signs of drowning" and ruled that the cause of death could not be ascertained.

    "China is determined to bring all them to justice," said Li Zhilun, minister of the Ministry of Supervision.

    The country has sadly witnessed coal mine tragedies that come one after another, killing dozens of miners, with the latest one on Monday in central China's Henan Province claiming more than 30 lives.

    China will take the strictest measures to punish local officials who would dare to cheat investigators by hiding the truth or set barriers to that effect, he said, noting that some of them are quite likely to have got kickbacks from mine owners.

    Corruption has proved to be one of the key things that have led to mine blasts in the past. Hundreds of officials had been unveiled as problematic worms in probes carried out by both central and local authorities.

    "Corruption by local officials have appeared in every single procedure that relates to the approval, licensing, production and sale practices of coal mines," he said.

    Corruptions by those officials have undoubtedly aggravated the risks that the Chinese miners would face when working underground.

    The punishment of corruption is the key to the final solving ofproblems existing with coalmine work safety, said Li Yizhong, headof the China work safety administration, citing the adoption of severe punishing rules as the only path to that end.

    "We will work to get rid of 'the coal stained with blood' or 'gross domestic product with blood stains'," he said.

    Li said in a recent article that the base condition in China's coalmines would not only hurt the life and property of the people, but also render impact on the healthy development of the coal industry and the country's overall economy and social stability.

    China's work safety authority has determined to close 8,648 or 40 percent of the country's mines, a bid which Li Yizhong said would eradiate almost half of China's traps that have been swallowing human lives.

    Earlier this month, the State Council, or the Chinese cabinet, promulgated another set of rules that are specially designed for the operation of coalmines.

    The rules make clear what responsibility the coalmine owners, local governments and related authorities should bear in coalmine related issues.

    "Linkage between coalmine owners and local official has significantly cut the effect of the implementation of laws," said Li Zhilun.

    Local officials, especially those in leading positions, he said,will be held liable accordingly together with those directly responsible for mine accidents and the staff in charge of production affairs.

    "China's supervision will devote every effort to ensuring all accident probes carried out objectively, fairly and in accordance with laws," he said.

PIKEVILLE - The coal industry has eliminated many of the dangers faced by miners, but more improvements are needed, the acting director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a speech prepared for a group of coal operators Thursday.

"We can all take a moment to congratulate ourselves here today, but only a moment," David G. Dye said in the speech released to the Associated Press. "One mining fatality, one mining injury, one occupational illness is one too many, and you know we still have work to do."

So far this year, 15 coal miners have been killed on the job in the United States. Kentucky, with six fatalities, leads the nation. Alabama has had three fatalities, Pennsylvania and West Virginia two each, and Ohio and Oklahoma one each.

Last year, 28 people died in coal mine accidents nationwide.

"MSHA and the industry have worked long and hard together to take care of many of the obvious physical hazards, the ones that could be fixed with better engineering, better equipment, and better technology," Dye said in the remarks. "We're now down to the hardest thing of all to fix, the human aspect of safety."

Dye was the scheduled speaker at the annual meeting of Coal Operators and Associates, an industry group based in Pikeville. The meeting was closed to the public.

Dye said "the vast majority" of mining accidents are caused by human error. He said miners have to be persuaded not to take risks.

"In order to get to the next level - to make it down that final slope toward zero - we must address the difficult questions of what motivates and drives people's decisions and choices about safety and health in the workplace," Dye said.

Managers, regulators linked

Dan Kane, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, said often the human errors that lead to miners being injured or killed are on the part of mine managers and even regulators who don't perform their jobs as they should. Coal operators need to give miners the tools needed to work safely and regulators need to adopt and enforce regulations to keep miners safe, he said.

"People who take the easy way out by blaming the injured miner are extremely unfair and extremely inaccurate," Kane said.

Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, said technology has made coal mining safer. For example, he said miners can operate underground machinery by remote control, taking them out of harm's way. And on equipment like roof bolters, shields have been added to stop or divert falling rocks away from the miners operating them, he said.

Caution is key

The key, Caylor said, is for miners always to be cautious. "It's just like speeding. If people really know what it would mean to have a wreck, maybe you could convince them not to commit an unsafe act. Changing the behavior patterns of miners is crucial."

In his prepared remarks, Dye said one of the industry's top concerns is retreat mining.

"Some recent tragic accidents have brought home to all of us that we must all work together to address this issue and work on ways to make the mines safer for your miners," he said.

In Kentucky alone, four miners have been crushed in rock falls in the past 15 months during retreat mining, which involves removing coal pillars that support the roof. The latest accident occurred in August, when two miners were killed by a roof fall in a Harlan County mine.

Dye said 18 fatalities have occurred during retreat mining in the past eight years.

Quoting unnamed sources, the paper said Heilongjiang Longmei had picked CITIC Capital as the IPO sponsor and it planned to bring in strategic investors before the deal.

No officials from Heilongjiang Longmei or CITIC Capital were immediately available for comment.

Any offering would follow an IPO by China Shenhua Energy , the country's largest coal producer, which raised US$2.95 billion in June.

The newspaper said Heilongjiang Longmei was formed in December through a merger of four state-owned coal producers as the northeastern province tried to emerge as one of the country's top coal producing bases.

It produced 27 million tonnes of coal during the first half of this year, the paper said, and plans to raise annual output to 100 million tonnes.

Beijing is trying to restructure the industry, saddled with hundreds of small mines.

While China is one of the world's top coal exporters and relies on coal for over two-thirds of its energy consumption, its mining industry is the world's most dangerous, with a death toll of about 2,700 in the first half of 2005 alone. ($1=HK$7.75)

China will close down a number of ill-operated coal mines at the end of this month, said a work safety official here Monday.

The country's work safety authority will release the list of the first batch of coal mines to be closed down, said Wang Xianzheng, deputy director of the National Bureau of Production Safety Supervision and Administration.

Before this bid, the bureau had ordered 8,648 coal mines which failed to renew their work safety certificates to stop operation for safety checks due to the frequent blasts and accidents took place in coal mines throughout the country.

Describing the closing of the mines as the most difficult part in the prevention process of coal mine accidents, Wang expected to confront resistance as the closing will certainly hurt the interests of the coal mine owners, as well as those who have benefits in that.

According to Wang, most provincial level authorities have submitted their specific steps for coal mine safety check to the bureau, "But many of them only give vague plans only with deadlines set as late December."

The bureau had already required them to report more detailed plans, said Wang.

“All the coal mines that fail to pass the check will be closed down this year," he said.

However, the closing acts should be carried out exactly according to laws and may employ law enforcement, he said.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today, through its "Winter Alert" campaign, warned U.S. underground coal mine operators and miners of workplace hazards that can arise when the weather turns colder. MSHA records indicate that, historically, most explosions in underground coal mines occur during winter months.

"The changes in weather can increase the risk of fatal accidents," said David G. Dye, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "Each miner and mine operator must take individual responsibility to eliminate the kinds of hazards that can cause fatal accidents in the workplace. Safety is not the other guy's job-safety begins with you."

In fact, MSHA's slogan for this year's campaign is "Winter Alert Starts Now And Safety Begins With YOU." The annual campaign reminds miners and mine operators of the risks of colder weather and educates them about helping to reduce risks and hazards.

"Safety requires the joint effort of both management and labor," Dye continued. "Everyone at the mine site must see safety as an individual value and act to ensure a safe working environment."

During winter, low barometric pressure and humidity, coupled with the seasonal drying of many areas in coal mines, have contributed to conditions conducive to coal-mine explosions. Drier air allows for the suspension of coal dust in the atmosphere, increasing the chance of an explosion. Low pressure allows methane to move more easily into active areas, where it can possibly ignite. Additionally, limited visibility during inclement weather, icy mine access roads and haul roads, slippery walkways, and the freezing and thawing process on highwalls contribute to hazardous conditions that should be addressed during winter months.

Mine operators are encouraged to conduct frequent mine examinations, provide adequate ventilation of underground areas, apply liberal amounts of rockdust, and frequently check for methane gas buildup at their work site.

Agency personnel are visiting mine sites and speaking to miners and mine operators about the winter alert hazards. Today and throughout the winter, MSHA mine inspectors will hand out stickers, posters and decals that warn miners and operators of the unique dangers brought on by colder weather.

More information on mine safety and health can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.msha.gov.