Beijing, July 25: North China's major coal producing province of Shanxi has shut down more than 1,000 small pits this year in a continuing battle to lower the industry's vast death toll, state media said today. In all, 1,034 small mines in Shanxi had been closed in a crackdown which began after five accidents in the province killed 99 miners in little more than a week last December, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The intention is to reduce the mines in the region, which once numbered more than 9,000, to 3,000 medium- and large-sized pits.
Smaller pits, often operated illegally, tend to be especially dangerous even by the spectacularly perilous standards of Chinese mining lacking even basic safety equipment.

China regularly launches high-profile campaigns to shut small or illegally-run mines, but with seemingly little effect on a massive annual death toll thought to be around 10,000 a year.

At least 3,500 miners have died in Chinese mines so far this year, according to official figures and reports, which many foreign experts consider to be substantial underestimates.

Only last week 12 miners died when an explosion tore through a coal mine in Shanxi's Yangquan city, according to state media.
Whatever the scale of the crackdowns -- the one in Shaxi involved 5,000 safety inspectors, according to Xinhua -- many mines just reopen when outside officials have left, often with mine owners paying bribes for local cadres to turn a blind eye.
Bureau Report