Timeline: China mining disasters
China’s mining industry is the world’s deadliest, with poor working conditions and lax enforcement of safety standards leading to thousands of deaths a year.
Below is rundown of some of China’s deadliest reported mining disasters:
November 27, 2005
Coal dust catches fire at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in Qitaihe, a city in Heilongjiang province, killing at least 169 miners.
February 15, 2005
An explosion in Sunjiawan coal mine in Liaoning province kills 214 miners.
November 28, 2004
An explosion in the state-run Chenjiashan Coal Mine in the northwestern province of Shaanxi kills 166 miners.
October 20, 2004
An explosion blamed on high gas levels in a mine in the central province of Henan kills 148.
June 20, 2002
An explosion in the Chengzihe Coal Mine near the northeastern city of Jixi kills 124.
 |
|
The government has repeatedly |
June 17, 2001
An underground flood blamed on miners drilling into an adjacent shaft and unleashing a torrent of water in the Lajiapo tin mine in the southern Guangxi region kills 81.
September 27, 2000
A gas buildup blamed on lack of ventilation and ignited by a mining lamp at the Muchonggou
mine in the southern province of Guizhou kills 162.
November 27, 1996
A gas explosion at the Dongcun mine near Datong in the northwestern province of Shanxi kills at least 91 miners.
April 21, 1991
A gas explosion in the Sanjiaohe coal mine in Shanxi province kills at least 147 miners.
April 25, 1942
An accident in a coal mine near Benxi in Japanese-occupied Manchuria kills 1,549 miners in the worst mining disaster on record.