China's deadly coal mines took nearly 3,800 lives in 2007, more than 20 percent fewer fatalities than the year before, the government and state press reported Sunday.
"It is the second consecutive year for the country to report a 20 percent fall in coal mine accident fatalities," said Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety.
Due to efforts to improve safety, the death rate per one million tons of coal production has fallen from 4.94 in 2002 to 1.485 last year, he said in transcripts of the Saturday meeting posted on the administration website.
Li did not give the number of fatalities in the mining industry in 2007, but Xinhua news agency reported that 3,786 miners lost their lives last year.
Independent labour groups have long maintained that China's mining death toll is much higher than the government says with local mine bosses and regional leaders covering up accidents to avoid fines and costly shut downs.
As the world's largest coal producer and consumer, China's mines have been rife with accidents since energy demand has rocketed along with the boom in the nation's economy.
Total coal output was estimated at 2.52 billion tons in 2007, up five percent from the amount produced the year before, Li said.
In one of the most recent accidents, 105 miners were killed in a coal mine explosion last month in northern Shanxi province, the centre of the nation's coal industry.
Government mine-safety bureau spokeswoman An Yuanjie said then that management at the Shanxi mine had compounded the tragedy by failing to report the accident for more than five hours while sending in their own unqualified teams.
Meanwhile, six miners were killed in a coal mine fire in eastern China's Jiangxi province on Saturday, while rescuers have recovered the bodies of five miners killed in a Thursday mining flood in Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency said.
