Already the world's biggest coal producer and consumer, China increased its coal output last year by 9% to a record 4.5 billion tonnes, with the country urging miners to ramp up production after a nationwide power shortage in late 2021 led to a quadrupling of domestic prices.
In 2022, however, there were 168 accidents of varying degrees of severity, data from the NMSA shows, surging from 91 the year before. The open-pit mine that collapsed this week had been closed for three years until April 2021, state media reported. It reopened just as coal prices soared, reaching record levels later that year.coal mines in Inner Mongolia to carry out safety checks after the accident this week.China amended its criminal law in 2021 to include punishments of managers at mines involved in accidents due to over-production.
"China is mining at a rate of 10 to 25 metres deeper each year, leaving miners facing more complicated scientific and technical problems," Yuan Liang, a coal mining professor at Anhui University of Science and Technology, said in a research paper published in January.China last year approved some 260 million tonnes of new mining capacity and reopened scores of mothballed mines.
Ayn Rand is laughing.
'Glad to see the coal industry is taking safety so seriously!'
This will be the future of China. Chi troppo vuole, nulla stringe