What’s new: Authorities in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region recently reported that 53 people died in an unspecified incident this year, with evidence pointing to the open-pit coal mine collapse in February, making it the deadliest such incident in China in more than seven decades.
The mine, operated by local firm Xinjing Coal Industry Co., collapsed on Feb. 22 in the prefecture of Alxa League in the northern Chinese region. Only five of the victims were confirmed dead that month, while the rest were reported missing.
The latest death toll was revealed in two reports from the Inner Mongolia emergency management department. The reports, published on Sunday and Monday, respectively, said Inner Mongolia recorded only one “extraordinarily serious accident” in the first five months of the year, resulting in 53 deaths.
Chinese authorities define an extraordinarily serious accident as an incident that causes more than 30 deaths, over 100 serious injuries or direct economic losses exceeding 100 million yuan ($13.9 million).
Caixin has learned that local authorities stopped searching for survivors of the collapse in mid-April. On Tuesday, Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper quoted a source also saying that the authorities had stopped rescue efforts and confirmed that the people initially reported missing after the mine collapsed were presumed dead.
The background: The release of the death toll coincides with an ongoing rise in the rate of incidents in coal mines and on building sites, prompting authorities to ramp up safety checks and intensify crackdowns on unsafe practices as part of a broader corruption.
Xinjing Coal Industry was penalized multiple times for business violations, government records showed. Last year, the company was fined and warned over several violations in water usage, mining site arrangement and safety management.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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