Mining deaths down 24%

Fatalities resulting from mining accidents in China fell by nearly 24% between January and September compared to the same period last year, state media reported. Speaking at a coal mining safety conference in Zhengzhou, Luo Lin, head of the State Adminstration of Work Safety, said that the number of deaths in China’s mines had continued to fall since 2003, when the government introduced tougher safety regulations and harsher penalties for those who violate them. Luo did not provide the exact number of people killed in China’s mines, but calculations based on the figures show that the death toll was 1,892 between January and September. Luo said that China had closed 13,000 small mines since 2005, and had earmarked a total of US$2.2 billion to be spent on upgrading the industry.