China will start a three-month safety checks of the country's mining dumps from this month, the country's work safety watchdog said on Thursday.

The move came after the Sept. 8 accident in which at least 267 people were killed in a landslide due to the burst of an unlicensed iron ore tailings in Xiangfen County.

An initial investigation found the iron ore dregs pond collapse was due to negligence. The dumping pond was built in violation of regulations and had few safety inspections.

The State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) said they would identify the number of mining dumps across the country as well as the state of such dumps during the inspection.

Illegal facilities and those with insufficient safety measures would be closed, the administration said.

It also vowed to improve safety supervision over mining dumps.

"The September 8 landslide was a very serious production safety incident, causing great losses, having a bad impact and leaving a deep lesson," Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang said when he visited the landslide site in Xiangfen on Thursday morning.

(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2008)