Mine had been told to cease production
Bosses were gambling with workers' lives, says Guangdong party chief
The Guangdong coal mine that flooded on Sunday, trapping 123 miners, had been operating in defiance of a government order to halt production last month, it emerged yesterday.
The order was issued by the Meizhou city government after another coal mine accident that killed 16 people, Xinhua reported.
Rescuers revised the number of miners trapped from 102 to 123 yesterday after gathering reports from miners' relatives.
By last night, more than two days after the accident at the Daxing Colliery in the town of Huanghuai in northern Guangdong, none of the workers had been rescued.
The accident prompted severe criticism by the head of the State Administration of Work Safety, Li Yizhong. 'This is a typical case in which mine owners make money, miners lose their lives and the government pays the bill,' Xinhua quoted Mr Li as saying.
He blasted local authorities for granting the colliery a safety licence - one of the three licences required for production - in June, saying that they had made 'serious mistakes'.
Describing the management of the mine as 'chaotic', Mr Li said: 'The design capacity of the Daxing Colliery is 30,000 tonnes a year, but it has produced 60,000 tonnes in the first six month of the year alone. It showed they disregarded all safety instructions and worked illegally.
'They don't even have a complete list of names of the miners.
'I don't know why the company passed the safety inspection and got the licence. I think it was a mistake,' Mr Li said.
He vowed to hold local officials responsible.
The secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's supervision department, Huang Shuxian , led a team to Xingning, the city in Meizhou that encompasses Huanghuai, on Monday night to investigate the accident.
Sixty-nine officials in charge of the mine operation have been ordered to report to central government investigators today. By last night, 10 of the 11 senior managers had turned themselves in.
Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang admitted provincial authorities had failed in their 'leadership duty', according to the semi-official China News Service.
'How can they mine there with 15 million cubic metres of water hanging over their heads?' Mr Zhang said, referring to where the miners were trapped.
Mr Zhang said mine bosses 'were just gambling with the lives of the miners'.
According to Xinhua, at least 40 trapped miners were migrant workers from Hunan, while more than 30 were from Jiangxi and about two dozen were Xingning locals. Others came from Guizhou and Hubei .
Rescuers stepped up their efforts after a fourth pump arrived yesterday, but there were no significant signs to show the water level had dropped in the mine.
