Shortage of safety expertise in mines 'hits crisis point'
The appalling accident record in mainland coal mines is due partly to a shortage of qualified safety technicians, according to a senior coal mine engineer and academic.
Zhang Tiegang, of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and chief engineer at the Pingdingshan Coal Co in Henan , said the shortage had hit a crisis point.
'The high frequency of coal mine accidents, to some extent, is the result of the shortage of safety professionals,' Mr Zhang told the Beijing Youth Daily.
The mainland has the world's worst mine safety record: more than 6,000 coal miners were killed in over 3,600 accidents underground last year.
The exact number of mines is unknown because there are many illegal operations. But the number of registered mines has been put at more than 20,000, while the known number of miners is 6 million to 8 million, according to Luo Yun, of the China University of Geosciences in Beijing.
Although the number of coal miners is increasing dramatically, the intake of students of mine safety in 15 key coal sciences institutes halved in 2002 to slightly over 1,000 from about seven years ago, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.
Professor Luo said qualified staff were not taking jobs because mine managers and owners ignored safety. 'Although there are rules governing the employment of staff in mines, many enterprises don't obey them.'
According to the Guangming Daily, there are 40 big to mid-sized state-run mines in the country, each capable of producing 5 million tonnes annually. A large number of private mines - both legal and illegal - operate in remote areas.
'Staff standards in private mines are much worse than in government mines,' said Professor Luo, who teaches mining engineering. 'There is almost no technical staff, while workers at the coal face receive little or no training.'
Professor Luo's assessment is backed up by events in Jiangxi , where three mining accidents last year killed 18 people. Each accident was due to the lack of safety personnel and procedures, a top work safety official said.
Of the 1.96 billion tonnes of coal produced on the mainland last year, only 1.2 billion tonnes was from mines that met minimum work-safety requirements.
