Hidden tunnels, fake doors: China probes mining tragedy that killed 82
Stock image.Unmarked tunnels, missing trackers and fake doors have been uncovered during an initial probe into the deadliest mining tragedy in China in over 15 years, with the government vowing to leave no stone unturned, state media reported on Tuesday.
At least 82 people were killed by a gas explosion late on Friday at the Liushenyu mine in the coal-rich province of Shanxi in northern China. Two remained unaccounted for with a further 128 hospitalized, state media said.
The blast is the deadliest mining accident in China since 2009, when a gas explosion at the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people.
While the cause of Friday’s incident remains under investigation, the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday said concealed mining tunnels, falsified drawings, and outsourced and unregistered miners, who had not been provided with required life-saving location trackers, were contributing factors to the deadly incident.
Unmarked tunnels, missing trackers and fake doors have been uncovered during an initial probe into the deadliest mining tragedy in China in over 15 years, with the government vowing to leave no stone unturned, state media reported on Tuesday.
At least 82 people were killed by a gas explosion late on Friday at the Liushenyu mine in the coal-rich province of Shanxi in northern China. Two remained unaccounted for with a further 128 hospitalized, state media said.
The blast is the deadliest mining accident in China since 2009, when a gas explosion at the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people.
While the cause of Friday’s incident remains under investigation, the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday said concealed mining tunnels, falsified drawings, and outsourced and unregistered miners, who had not been provided with required life-saving location trackers, were contributing factors to the deadly incident.
‘Yin-yang drawings’
The mine, controlled by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, maintained two separate sets of plans and surveillance systems, Xinhua said. One set matched the actual operations while the other was used to deal with official inspections, with some mining areas hidden from regulatory oversight.
Reuters was not able to contact officials from the company, as according to state media they have been detained.
Coal mined from the concealed and unregulated tunnels is not included in the official production figures and went untaxed.
The two sets of plans are known colloquially as “yin-yang drawings”: one kept in the open for inspectors to scrutinize and the other kept in the dark.
Similar profit-driven practices are not uncommon in coal mines across China despite crackdowns, the national mine safety administration has said.
The Liushenyu mine “used wire mesh and woven plastic sacks sprayed with mortar, to make fake doors that looked very much like the rock wall of the mine tunnel,” Xinhua said.
Workers would be tipped off by someone outside whenever inspectors came, and they would shut the fake doors, smear coal ash to blend them in with the rest of the underground passage.
The mine, controlled by Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group, maintained two separate sets of plans and surveillance systems, Xinhua said. One set matched the actual operations while the other was used to deal with official inspections, with some mining areas hidden from regulatory oversight.
Reuters was not able to contact officials from the company, as according to state media they have been detained.
Coal mined from the concealed and unregulated tunnels is not included in the official production figures and went untaxed.
The two sets of plans are known colloquially as “yin-yang drawings”: one kept in the open for inspectors to scrutinize and the other kept in the dark.
Similar profit-driven practices are not uncommon in coal mines across China despite crackdowns, the national mine safety administration has said.
The Liushenyu mine “used wire mesh and woven plastic sacks sprayed with mortar, to make fake doors that looked very much like the rock wall of the mine tunnel,” Xinhua said.
Workers would be tipped off by someone outside whenever inspectors came, and they would shut the fake doors, smear coal ash to blend them in with the rest of the underground passage.
Missing trackers, alarms
In order to evade detection, the mine operator hired subcontracted labour to work in the concealed tunnels without providing them with required identification-location trackers or logging them in the official entry record.
Authorities would have been able to monitor where the miners were underground had they been equipped with trackers, including in emergency situations.
When the blast occurred on Friday, the official log showed only 124 workers had gone underground, according to footage shown on state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. In fact a total of 247 workers were working in the mine, suggesting that 123 had been untracked in tunnels outside official purview.
The lack of accurate maps and miners’ location information has severely hampered rescue operations, state media said.
The Liushenyu mine – classified as a “high-gas mine” with elevated blast risk – also deliberately avoided installing gas-monitoring equipment to further evade authorities’ supervision, the state radio broadcaster said in a separate report on Tuesday.
The issues were not unknown to authorities before Friday’s tragedy. In 2025, the mine operator was “fined after regulators discovered concealed working faces, but the penalty failed to serve as an effective deterrent, and the company continued illegal production,” Xinhua said.
Some mines across China have halted or reduced production following the incident for safety inspections.
(By Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
In order to evade detection, the mine operator hired subcontracted labour to work in the concealed tunnels without providing them with required identification-location trackers or logging them in the official entry record.
Authorities would have been able to monitor where the miners were underground had they been equipped with trackers, including in emergency situations.
When the blast occurred on Friday, the official log showed only 124 workers had gone underground, according to footage shown on state broadcaster CCTV on Monday. In fact a total of 247 workers were working in the mine, suggesting that 123 had been untracked in tunnels outside official purview.
The lack of accurate maps and miners’ location information has severely hampered rescue operations, state media said.
The Liushenyu mine – classified as a “high-gas mine” with elevated blast risk – also deliberately avoided installing gas-monitoring equipment to further evade authorities’ supervision, the state radio broadcaster said in a separate report on Tuesday.
The issues were not unknown to authorities before Friday’s tragedy. In 2025, the mine operator was “fined after regulators discovered concealed working faces, but the penalty failed to serve as an effective deterrent, and the company continued illegal production,” Xinhua said.
Some mines across China have halted or reduced production following the incident for safety inspections.
(By Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
China coking coal prices extend gains after Shanxi mine disaster
Chinese coking coal futures pushed higher for a second session as investors watched for a broader government crackdown on the sector after a deadly accident at a mine in Shanxi province.
Prices in Dalian surged as much as 5.1% in early trading before paring most of the gains, after hitting the daily limit on Monday. Authorities in Shanxi have halted operations at 109 mines, which account for 122 million tons of annual capacity, according to to consultancy Mysteel. A fatal blast occurred at the privately owned Liushenyu mine on Friday night.
Most mines are subject to three-to-seven-day halts after severe incidents, and the market is watching to see if that scope will be expanded, as China nears the start of its annual mining safety campaign on June 1. If a sweeping crackdown by Beijing doesn’t eventuate, coal production will likely rapidly rebound after initial inspections, weighing on prices.
“Given the coal supply guarantee requirements ahead of summer, the central government has not further tightened work safety supervision,” said Yu Dian, a principle researcher at Citic Futures Co., based in Shanghai.
The blast, which killed at least 82 people, abruptly tightened China’s coking coal market, directly impacting about 4% of the country’s output. Some miners received higher offers for supply after the disaster, Mysteel said.
Coking coal futures were 0.5% higher at 1,273 yuan a ton as of 11:01 a.m. in Singapore. Iron ore on the Singapore Exchange fell 1.4% to $105.20. Dalian iron ore and Shanghai steel prices also retreated.
(By Katharine Gemmell)
No comments:
Post a Comment