The small mine sector in China

Abstract

FOCUS □ WORKERS'RIGHTSINFORMALANDINFORMAL MINING The small mine sector in China The overallfatal accident rate in thecoal industry has overthe past tenyears fallenby 80 percent, accordingto official figures DAVE FEICKERT isaNew Zealand international mine safety adviser. He was head of research for the UK NUM for 10 years in the 80s and 90s, followed by 10years asthe TUC's Brussels representative. The worst infatalities small accident private per rate million mine incoal tonnes sector mining, of has output. by measured far This the worst accident rateincoal mining, measured infatalities permillion tonnes ofoutput. This hasbeenwell-documented bydifferent observers such as, interestingly, a group of 10 Hunan Normal University students who interviewed 545 minersover a two year period. Their report ended up on the desk of the thenMinister Li Yizhong of the StateAdministration of Work Safety ('SAWS') in 2006. The miners, some of whomwerealso working on their landas well, workedlonghoursand werefatalistic aboutthe likelihood ofdeathorseriousinjury. TimWright of Sheffield University and Philip Andrews-Speed of Aberdeen University have written themostcomprehensive assessments of thesmallminesectorinChinaand thisarticle is thankful fortheir work. In themostrecentstatement on safety in the coal industry, SAWSputouta pressreleaseduring its international forumin September 2012, whichit held in Beijingtogether withtheILO. SAWSofficials announcedthatthe overallfatal accident rateincoal mineshadfallen to0.35per one million tonnesor about10 timestheratein theUS.A decade ago itused tobe 100times the USfatal accident rateandmostofthoseaccidents tookplace inthesmallminesector. Today the 12,000smallminesstillcontribute twothirds ofthefatalities whileproducing only one thirdof the output.In the last ten years 20,000smallmineshavebeenclosed,production has become concentrated on large provincial stateowned('SOE') mines,and theindustry has become much safer,which some large mines havingno fatalities sincethey weresunk. Nineyearsago,in2003forexample, 4661minerswerekilledinsmallminescompared with 892 in largeSOE mines,whichproducedmorethan thesmallminesector. With thesmaller SOE mines added,thetotalnumber ofdeathsin2003incoal mineswas 6434.Theoverall fatal accident ratein thecoal industry has nowfallen tounder2000,a dropofover80percent inthelasttenyears, while the outputhas trebledto 3.5 billiontonnes.It shouldbe stressed that alltheseareofficial figures. No one really knowshowmanyminers arekilled in China at work.There has been systematic under-reporting, especiallyamong small mine operators. Butthedownward trendis clearand thefigures arebecoming moreaccurate, as deliberateunder -reporting is punished. Accidents, however, remain atan unacceptable level despite the huge progressbeing made. Chinahas also had a greatdeal ofhelpfrom the US,EU,Australia, New ZealandandJapan,with experts from thosecountries working throughout Chinaoverthepast10years, as thegovernment has invited inoutsiders to help. The smallminescannotbe understood onlyin termsof miningpracticein the context of the energy economy. Theymustbe seen inthespecialframe ofreference ofrural China, wheremost of themare located. In heavilyminedareas, wherethereare largeminesoperating some of theneighbouring smallmineshavebeenmerged intothelarger mines,withthecompaniesowningthem ,also mergedor boughtout. In other areasgroupsof smallmineshave been merged intoone larger mine,whichthenbecomesmore suitable to advanced miningtechniques.In provincessuch as Yunnan in the southwest, thereare manyfewerlargeminesintowhich smallminescanbe merged andmoreofthe1200 smallmineshaveremained open,producing the vitally neededenergy for economic development, thanis the case in the northern provinces the centres ofmining. The mineownersinYunnan havea greater relative influence ontheprovincial governmentbecause of the greaterrelative importance oftheir output inthelocaleconomy. Givenhighcoal pricesinrecent years, owning evena smallcoal minehasbrought considerable wealthwithin therelatively impoverished countryside wherecoal measuresoutcropor are in easy reach at shallowdepths.In additionthe labourintensive sectorused toemploy around2 millionpeople - mainlypoor farmers, who would otherwisebe buriedin poverty or be forced tomigrate tothecities alongwith millions ofothers. Employment levelshavefallen as small mineshave shut.Local authorities drawa great deal ofrevenuefrom thesmallminesoperating intheir territory, whilealso beingresponsible for supervising both productionlevels and mine safety in their areas.But,local government officials face warnings, demotions, dismissaland prosecution forproduction safety transgressions undernew rulesjointly issuedbySAWSandthe Ministry ofSupervision. In November 2006,inresponsetotheincreasingfatality rateinShanxiProvince, theProvincial Government andSAWSimposeda newrule, limitingto 100 the maximumnumberof people allowed underground duringanyshift in stateowned Townshipand Village('TVE') medium sizedcoal mines.Thiswas done inorder topreventthemadrushforproduction , with managers goingbeyondagreedminecapacity, based on safety limits. The difficulty in enforcing closure orderswas revealedby Li Yizhong,theformer Minister forSAWSandZhaoTiechui, theheadof theSAWSCoal MineSafety Supervisory Bureauin November 2006.Zhao challenged a county head,askingwhytheyhad not shuta particular mine down. The official replied that they hadblockadedthemine, butnot blown up the entrance, as required. The mine INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 8Volume 19Issue 32012 had been re-openedand later32 minerswere killed inanaccident. Inaddition, inan attempt to divert thenational officials, thelocalgovernment had shutanother smaller mineand claimedthey had closedthetargeted mine.The twonational officials gave otherexamplesof where mines with a designcapacity toproduce50,000tonsper yearwere certified to produce150,000tonsby localofficials. In suchsituations, reporters investigating fatal accidents have also been detainedby thelocal authorities, as in thecase...