A rash of mining accidents in China is raising safety and environmental concerns

On the first day of April, six coal miners died after an explosion in Jilin province in northeast China, where only 3 days earlier twenty-eight miners had perished.  At Xinyu Group Iron Works, south of the accidents, four more miners died after another explosion.  And 70 kilometers outside the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, rescuers have located thirty-six bodies from a landslide that occurred in late March burying more than eighty miners working for Huatailong Mining Development, a subsidiary of the largest gold producer in China, China National Gold Group Corporation.

It appears the miners were asleep in their tents at the time and that just 1 miner escaped the landslide unscathed.  The massive landslide was 4 square kilometers in size.  Several thousand people and dogs trained in search and rescue have been mobilized to search for missing miners, but efforts have been hampered by mountainous terrain and snow.

In spite of efforts by the state and mining companies to improve working conditions at mines, China’s drive to accelerate economic growth has hindered the implementation of safety measures. 

In Tibet, mining operations have decimated the environment, leading some to conclude that such activities were responsible for the disaster.   China claims that mineral extraction will lead to higher standards of living for those living in the region, but in spite of mining activities flourishing, Tibetans remain poor.

(Edited from Associated Press)