Officials of south China's Guangdong provincial government confirmed in Guangzhou yesterday a decision announced on September 4 to completely shut down its coal mining industry "soon." Documents published on Wednesday cited safety and environmental concerns as the reasons.

In the wake of the Daxing Coal Mine flooding in Xingning in early August, which killed 123 miners, Guangdong closed 112 mines because they lacked the required production or work safety licenses.

It also ordered the rest to stop production whilst safety inspections were carried out.

The latest decision will shut all the province's remaining 141 mines, located in the cities of Meizhou, Qingyuan and Shaoguan. Officials yesterday said the closures would be permanent.

The decision came as the State Administration of Work Safety prepares to send a huge supervision force to inspect more than 7,000 unsafe coal mines nationwide against national safety standards.

Most of Guangdong's 253 mines have poor safety conditions, and only a few have all required production or work safety licenses.

Of 111 mines in Shaoguan only two have all required production or work safety licenses; of 91 in Meizhou only 29 have them; and none of the 51 in Qingyuan does.

The province's annual production of about 8 million tons of coal makes up a small fraction of national coal production, which was 1.9 billion tons last year.

Its significance to the province is also dwarfed by nine pillar industries --electronic information, electrical appliances and electric machines, petrochemicals, food and beverages, textile, building materials, paper, medical goods and automobiles -- which constitute 70% of Guangdong's economy.

Guangdong officials said the province will set aside a special fund to compensate mines for being closed and help miners to transfer jobs.

Sources said it will also try to stabilize the price of coal by buying coal from other provinces and regions.

Unsafe mines kill at least 6,000 workers every year in China. In the past, governments had ordered illegal or unsafe coal mines to stop production after fatal accidents. But enforcement was difficult mainly because local officials were working as "protection umbrellas" for mine owners.

In an effort to stop this kind of corruption, the State Council ordered all officials and civil servants who have invested in coal mines to cut their ties with the pits by September 22.

Yesterday, the National Development and Reform Commission also said 32.1 billion yuan (US$3.94 billion) earmarked to upgrade safety in State-owned mines has been distributed.

(China Daily September 16, 2005)