China’s small coal mines stay shut, deepening crisis

China’s drive to reopen thousands of small coal mines is failing, deepening the country’s worst power crisis in years as local officials still fear Beijing’s wrath if they suffer high-profile disasters.

Weeks after the central government urged miners to reopen the mines, effectively reversing a years-old policy of shutting them in order to improve safety in the world’s deadliest coal industry, local officials are proving reluctant. And Beijing’s freeze on coal prices has lowered the incentive for miners.
The failure to boost domestic coal supplies spells trouble for coal-fired electricity generators who produce four-fifths of China’s power, and could add to a this summer’s emerging power crisis, which has already forced aluminium smelters to cut output by up to a tenth and could stoke demand for oil.

“Local government officials are more concerned about personal interest. They are afraid of the punishment a mine accident could bring to them,” said Li Chaolin, a coal analyst at an industry body based in Beijing.

They are right to be concerned. Six government officials in the Luliang region of Shanxi were sacked after a blast at a small mine, approved to re-open just a month earlier, killed 34 in June, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Guardian