Tibet mine disaster 'shows failure of resources policy to benefit minorities'
Ethnic minorities are not sharing in the benefits of a boom in the mining sector, analysts say
A landslide that crashed down a Tibetan mountain, entombing scores of mine workers, serves as a parable for the nation's resources boom and its failure to benefit ethnic minorities, analysts say.
The 83 workers killed in the disaster were almost all members of the Han ethnic majority and from across the country, illustrating how minorities rarely see the fruits of underground wealth - not even dangerous jobs.
China has enjoyed decades of stunning economic growth but critics say much mineral development, often in poor minority regions, has been reckless and inefficient, coming with a high environmental and cultural cost.
About 91 per cent of the population of 1.35 billion is classified as ethnic Han, with the rest scattered among 55 other ethnic groups, including Uygurs, Manchus, Mongols, Koreans and Kazakhs as well as Tibetans.
Areas with significant minority populations such as Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia hold resources including oil, gas, copper, iron ore, coal and so-called rare earths - key components in hi-tech products such as smartphones.
The latest disaster struck in late March when a vast quantity of rock tumbled onto a workers' camp at a copper mine 4,600 metres above sea level east of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet autonomous region.
Most of the buried labourers were migrants who had ventured to the high altitude of the Tibetan plateau to work in an accident-prone sector of the economy. The mine is run by a subsidiary of the state-owned China National Gold Group, the country's largest gold producer, according to official media, and the Beijing-based company's website carried a photo of burning candles and a message offering "prayers for personnel".