China's mines saw 356 accidents and 503 deaths in 2021, down 16 percent and 12.7 percent year-on-year, respectively, according to data released by the State Administration of Mine Safety on Monday.

The Ministry of Emergency Management held a regular press conference on the same day, Zhang Xin, deputy director of the National Mine Safety Administration, introduced the situation of mine safety.

Zhang said that in 2021, faced with the unprecedented complex and grim situation of COVID-19, the highest coal price, the largest coal output and the most important task of ensuring supply, the situation of mine safety in China continued to improve steadily, with 356 accidents and 503 deaths in mines, down 16 percent and 12.7 percent year-on-year respectively. Last year, China's coal output hit a record high of 4.13 billion tons, up 5.7 percent year on year. 91 coal mine accidents and 178 deaths occurred, down 26 percent and 21.9 percent year on year respectively. The death rate of one million tons of coal fell to 0.044, down 24 percent year on year.

Zhang xin said that in order to ensure mine safety, the Ministry of Emergency Management has stepped up efforts to improve work safety, organized several special inspections, conducted regular analysis and judgment of mine accidents and risks, issued timely warning information, and accurately resolved a number of major disaster risks. At the same time, we strengthened supervision, supervision and law enforcement. During the year, we conducted law enforcement inspections on more than 97,000 mines and investigated 1,649 major hidden dangers.

In recent years, China has accelerated the construction of intelligent mining. According to official statistics, the number of intelligent mining and mining faces in The country has reached 813, an increase of 65% compared with 2020. Thanks to the construction of intelligent mining, the number of underground coal mine workers has decreased by 370,000 since 2016.

Zhang said the overall situation in mining safety has been stable since the beginning of this year, with 25 accidents and 40 deaths in January and February, down 46.8 percent and 43.7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

"However, the situation of mine safety production is still grim and complex, facing risks and challenges brought by the continued high price of mineral products, relatively concentrated resumption of work and production, increasingly serious disasters, and tight mining and mining continuity. "It has exposed that some regions and enterprises continue to engage in violations of laws and regulations, enterprises are not fully responsible, the foundation for safety is weak, and their supervision and supervision capacity is inadequate." Zhang said the ADMINISTRATION will improve supervision and supervision mechanisms, strictly regulate law enforcement, prevent and defuse major safety risks, and ensure stable work safety. (Chinanews.com)