One hundred and fifty mine owners in
“There’ll be blood shed if the government continues to turn a blind eye to our feelings,” said He Tao, representative of more than 150 pit owners from 32 private mines in Lianzhou city. He Tao, who is also a mine owner, said the owners in Lianzhou were never notified that their mines would be blown up, according to a report of the South China Morning Post. “They bombed our mines without any warning and millions of Yuan worth of underground equipment was destroyed,” the mine owner said.
In the aftermath of the tragic flood at the Daxing Coalmine in Xingning, Meizhou, on 7 August, the Guangdong provincial government order lower level governments to reorganize and start blowing up about 100 unlicensed mines in Meizhou, Shaoguan and Qingyuan counties on 16 August.
But violent battles broke out between government officials and the mine owners, according to a report in the
The local governments’ action resulted in several thousand people petitioning the city government in Shaoguan in
According to another report from the
The newspaper reported that many mine owners still possessed explosives, despite government moves to seize their reserves.
Sources:
Related articles:
China's Mining Tragedies – Commentary on coalmine safety by CLB Director Han Dongfang, http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/16054
The Key to Eliminating Coalmine Accidents is to Get Workers Involved in Monitoring Occupational Health and Safety: Some Thoughts after the 7 August Daxing Mine Disaster, http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/16088