China’s core coal mining province, Shanxi, plans to eliminate all coal mines under 600,000 tonnes/year capacity by the end of 2020, as part of the province’s three-year campaign over 2020-2022 to enhance safety in the industry, according to the plan recently released by the provincial government.
The 182-page document covers eleven key areas including coal mining, metallurgy and transportation, and seems to take its cue from a new three-year central-government campaign focusing on safety operations in mining unveiled by the Ministry of Emergency Management’s General Office in April, as reported. Last year, deaths among Chinese coal miners per million tonnes of raw coal produced refreshed its record low at 0.083, according to official data, but the rate remains higher than those in other major coal-mining countries, with most accidents occurring in small-sized mines.
By retiring its small- to medium-sized mines, Shanxi aims to further concentrate coal production in the province’s large-sized mines, the document states. By 2022, over 76% of Shanxi’s coal will be produced from such mines, higher than the national average of 70% requested in the central-government campaign in April, and the number of the province’s coal mines will be limited to 900.
By 2022, fatalities among mine workers per million tonnes of coal output will be controlled to within 0.05, according to the plan.
In China, the underground mines whose raw coal capacity is above 1.2 million t/y and open-cut mines above 4 million t/y are categorized as large-sized mines. Almost all mines in Shanxi are underground operations. The provincial government’s plan does not differentiate between thermal and metallurgical coal mines among those it intends to close this year.
Shanxi in North China is the country’s second-largest raw coal mining province and the largest coking coal mining source. During 2019, the province produced some 971.1 million tonnes of raw coal, or 26% of China’s total, according to official data. The proportion of production from large-sized mines is not clear.
By the end of last year, 643 mines were in operation in Shanxi, boasting 994.8 million t/y of raw coal capacity. Among the total, 309 mines with 743.8 million t/y in total were mines whose capacity was above 1.2 million t/y, or 74.8% of the total capacity, according to official data.
Note: This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between CoalMint and Mysteel Global.
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