Outlook article: Standardized rebirth of small coal mines

After the rectification task of small coal mines is completed half a year ahead of schedule, there are still about 16,111 small coal mines in China, which is still far from the 1,111 required by the 11th Five-Year Plan of the coal industry.

The closure task of small coal mines originally planned to be completed in June 2118 will be completed by the end of this year ahead of schedule, and Henan, Inner Mongolia and other provinces that have completed the closure task are actively engaged in small coal mines.

The on-site meeting organized by the State Administration of Work Safety was held in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Due to well-known reasons, the number of safety accidents in small coal mines and the difficulty of shutting them down have always been the heart disease of the competent authorities. Therefore, it is naturally hard to achieve the task of "closing about 11,111 small coal mines in three years" six months ahead of schedule.

However, the above achievements have not changed the prominent contradiction that the current coal industry structure is unreasonable. At present, small coal mines with a production capacity of less than 31,111 tons/year still account for more than 41% of the total coal mines, and those under construction account for 81%. Even after the closure task is completed at the end of the year, there are still 16,111 small coal mines in China. According to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan of the coal industry, the number of small coal mines in China will be reduced to 2111.

Strict shutdown does not mean "across the board"

"At present, among the 1,596 small coal mines in our province, there are more than 1,411 with an annual output of less than 31,111 tons. If these coal mines are shut down according to the national shutdown standard (with an annual output of less than 31,111 tons), all of them need to quit". After attending three meetings on coal mine safety in succession, Director Xie Guangxiang of Hunan Coal Supervision Bureau admitted to this reporter that he "feels more and more pressure".

According to Xie Guangxiang, the annual coal output in Hunan Province is 51 million tons, which is more than 11 million tons short of the demand, so it needs to be bought from Henan, Guizhou and other places. Due to the unstable reserves, poor occurrence conditions, and the five natural disasters such as gas, water, fire and coal dust, Hunan's coal is more suitable for small well group mining. Xie Guangxiang pointed out that small coal mines in Hunan are actually facing the life and death problem of "going on or quitting".

Xie Guangxiang introduced that after discussion, the closure plan of small coal mines in Hunan is to keep 1121 and close 476 by the end of this year. "However, these 1121 mines are facing the task of technological transformation, increasing the production capacity to 61,111 tons. According to the requirement of 71% completion by 2119, it means that most coal mines need technological transformation. Under the pressure of coal demand, if they produce while technological transformation, there will be endless hidden dangers." Xie Guangxiang is worried.

the explosion of small coal mines began in the early 1981s. At that time, the state relaxed the policy of running mines, and advocated that state-owned, collectives and individuals should work together, large, medium and small coal mines should develop together, and a large number of individual coal mines appeared (statistically and customarily, coal mines outside state-owned key and state-owned places were collectively referred to as township coal mines or small coal mines). According to the statistics of the competent department, by 1995, there were as many as 72,919 township coal mines in China, producing 666 million tons of coal, accounting for 48.9% of the national coal output that year; During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the state rectified the production order of township coal mines, shut down wells and pressed production, and the number of small coal mines decreased sharply; After 2112, with the recovery of the coal market, small coal mines recovered and developed again. In August 2115, at the beginning of tackling the key problem of coal mine rectification and closure, there were about 23,111 small coal mines in China. By the end of June 2117, 9,175 mines that were illegal and did not have safe production conditions, destroyed resources and environment and did not meet the national industrial policy were closed, and 3,271 small mines were under construction, reconstruction and expansion. At present, there are 7,111 small coal mines in China, of which more than 1,111 are listed as closed targets and will be closed according to law during the year.

the number of small coal mines accounts for about 91% of the total number of coal mines in China. Due to the outstanding problems such as poor safety production conditions, backward production technology, waste of resources and serious environmental pollution, small coal mines have become the focus of rectification in China's coal industry. According to the data, the output of small coal mines in China only accounts for one-third of the total raw coal output in China, but the number of accidents and casualties accounts for more than two-thirds of the coal mines in China. In 2116, the death rate per million tons of small coal mines was as high as 3.885, which was 6.19 times that of state-owned key coal mines and 2.14 times that of state-owned local coal mines.

There have been three prominent problems in small coal mines. First, illegal activities are serious, some of them are undocumented or do not have the conditions for safe production; Second, the scale is too small, and the mode of production is backward. Before the implementation of rectification and closure, the average size of small coal mines in China was about 32,111 tons in 2114, and it increased to about 52,111 tons in 2116. This scale is not conducive to the promotion of mechanization, and it is difficult to form the scale benefits necessary for transformation and upgrading. Many small coal mines still use primitive and backward production and transportation methods such as digging coal, blasting coal, wood support and underground manual coal transportation, and the recovery rate is low, only reaching 15%. Third, the basic management is weak, the security risks are serious, the production and operation are out of order, and the phenomenon of "three violations" is prominent.

Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, pointed out that the basic national conditions in the primary stage of socialism, the unbalanced development of regional economy and coal industry productivity, and the diversity of coal resources have determined that China will continue to maintain the coal industry pattern of large, medium and small coal mines at present and in a long historical stage in the future.

"government attaches importance to" and "mine owners understand" are the key points

At present, there are 598 small coal mines in * * *, Henan Province, which produced 811 million tons of coal in 2116, accounting for 71% and 43% of the coal mines in Henan Province respectively.

While completing the first step to solve the problem of small coal mines, that is, closing the well, Henan is also actively carrying out the second step of integrating technological transformation and the third step of managing strong mines. It is a realistic way to solve the problems of too many small coal mines, too small scale and backward technology by integrating resources with qualified mines and forming coal mines with a certain scale and adopting compliance technology and technology through technological transformation. By strengthening the basic management of safety in small coal mines, a long-term mechanism of safety production can be established.

for this reason, the national on-site meeting on basic safety management of small coal mines held on July 11-11 chose Henan as the venue.

the important agenda of this meeting is to promote the implementation of the recently issued Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Safety Basic Management of Small Coal Mines (hereinafter referred to as Guiding Opinions), which was jointly issued by the State Administration of Work Safety, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety and the Development and Reform Commission, aiming at comprehensively improving the safety basic management level of small coal mines, realizing the scientific and standardized safety management, and fundamentally solving the situation of weak foundation and frequent accidents in small coal mines.

at the meeting, in view of the different progress of small coal mines in different provinces and regions, Li Yizhong emphasized that all localities should actively promote the above-mentioned "three steps" according to the actual situation; "Three Steps" reflects the internal logical relationship of solving the problem of small coal mines, and the work is divided into stages with overlapping time.

when evaluating the exploration of legal supervision, effective guidance and extensive supervision of small coal mines by local and all levels of coal industry management departments and safety supervision institutions in solving the problems of small coal mines, Li Yizhong said that at the government level, there are four main experiences in Henan and other places:

First, the Party committee and government attach great importance to it, strengthen leadership and make overall plans. The positive effect of the well closure task is closely related to the fact that all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have defined the three-year work goal of coal mine rectification and closure and the number and output of reserved mines at the end of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan.

Second, resolutely eliminate backward capabilities and guide small coal mines to take the road of standardized mining and large-scale development. Henan, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) advocate and support state-owned key coal mines to integrate small coal mines in various ways and have achieved results. Erdos City, Inner Mongolia, through market guidance and government promotion, has transformed the remaining 456 small mines after closure into 156 coal mines with an annual output of more than 311,111 tons, and generally adopted fully mechanized mining or high-grade conventional mining. The mechanization level of coal mining has increased from 15% to 75%, and the average recovery rate of resources has increased from 25% to 71%.

the third is to provide policy support and guidance services for the safety production of small coal mines. Shanxi Province raised 12 billion yuan through various channels to carry out safety technical transformation in more than 2,111 small coal mines, organized professional forces to provide technical services for the safety monitoring and control system of small coal mines and county networking, and promoted the production monitoring and underground personnel positioning management system of small coal mines.

the fourth is to strengthen the government's safety supervision function. Henan, Beijing, Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi and other provinces and cities, explore how to implement safety supervision in towns and enterprises, establish and adhere to the system of sending deputy safety managers and safety supervisors to small coal mines, focusing on contact with the heads of relevant departments in counties, and sending county and township cadres to mines to cover mines. Dengfeng City, Henan Province, openly selected and equipped full-time coal deputy heads, which better solved the problem that the government's safety supervision was weakened and could not be implemented.

from the perspective of small coal mine enterprises, Li Yizhong pointed out that some small coal mines have explored and adopted some practical and effective measures in basic management and safety production, and there are many experiences worth summarizing. For example, mine owners have a clear understanding and correct production and management ideas; Run mines according to law and operate according to law; Willing to invest and pursue technological progress; Abide by rules, stress standards, and run mines in a civilized way; Attach importance to training and education, improve quality and skills; People-oriented, caring for miners, etc.

Among them, Li Yizhong emphasized that the key is that the mine owner should be a "sensible person". In all coal mines with solid safety management and stable safety conditions, one of the similarities is that the person in charge of the enterprise's decision-making power is a wise man with a clear head and a firm attitude on the life-threatening issue of safety production. Don't exchange money benefits at the expense of miners' lives, resources and environment, know that coal mine safety is paramount, "either coal mines eliminate accidents or accidents eliminate coal mines", and consciously regard safety production as the premise and guarantee for the survival and development of enterprises. Do not engage in short-term behavior, spend money and spare no effort on safety investment, and adhere to the development of mines through science and technology, strong management of mines and civilized management of mines. Of all the experiences and practices of small coal mining enterprises, this one is the most important.

Pay attention to the system disadvantages

This national on-site meeting on safety basic management of small coal mines is the first national conference with the theme of small coal mines in recent years. The participants said that although some achievements have been made in solving the problems of small coal mines at present, there are still some problems in the management of small coal mines.

first, the management of the coal industry is weakened, and there are many policies. Participants said that the standards of the coal industry have not been revised for ten years, which is obviously out of date; Because there is no unified management department, local development and reform commissions, coal supervision bureaus, land and resources, industrial and commercial management departments are in charge of each other, and there are many charging items, but the efficiency is not high;

Second, the management of "six certificates" needs to be improved. The normal production of small coal mines needs to apply for six certificates, including mine manager qualification certificate and mine manager safety qualification certificate. The representatives of small coal mines attending the meeting reported that there are some problems such as poor certification procedures, difficult certification and heavy burden on enterprises. Some coal mines need a special person to apply for various certificates every year. According to reports, the State Administration of Work Safety is working with relevant departments to prepare documents to reduce the above-mentioned certification links and improve efficiency.

thirdly, the problem of personnel training. There is a general shortage of technical talents in small coal mines, and the instability of the workforce also affects production safety.

fourthly, the practice of "stopping production to ensure safety" is not advocated. One of the main reasons for the rebound of coal mine accidents in March this year is that 88.2% of the coal mines in China stopped production for holidays or maintenance before the Spring Festival, and 91% of the small coal mines stopped production for holidays. After the "two sessions", some coal mines did not strictly resume production acceptance, and even violated laws and regulations and even resumed production with super-capacity, super-strength and over-capacity organizations, which led to frequent accidents.

At present, in the case of strong demand in the coal market, taking Henan as an example, according to Wang Yue, the owner of Yangcheng Coal Mine in Dengfeng City, the price of each ton of coal is around 311 yuan, and the mining cost of each ton of coal is about 111 yuan, and the total cost is less than that of 211 yuan/ton. Once Yangcheng Coal Mine, which was rebuilt and expanded from 91,111 tons per year, was put into production, the investment of more than 111 million yuan was less than 211,111 tons per year.

With such a huge profit margin, if there is no strong management and industry guidance, it will be difficult to ban the resurgence of closed mines, illegal and illegal production and even super-capacity, super-strength and over-quota production, and huge hidden dangers of accidents will surely be included. (Text/Reporter Thaung Myint)

The management of small coal mines in China has entered the stage of "managing strong mines" in an all-round way

Xinhuanet Zhengzhou July 15 (Reporter

Gu Wenhong) On the basis of obvious achievements in rectification, closure and integration of technological transformation, the management of small coal mines in China has entered the third stage of "managing strong mines" in an all-round way, pushing small coal mines to rely on management to embark on the road of long-term stability.

Li Yizhong: "Three Steps" to Solve the Safety Problem of Small Coal Mines

Zhengzhou, Xinhuanet, July 11 (Reporter

Gu Wenhong) Li Yizhong, director of state administration of work safety, said on July 11 that the productivity level of small coal mines is generally backward and accidents are frequent, which is the "hardest hit area" for coal mine safety production, and the whole country is accelerating the fundamental solution of the problems of small coal mines in accordance with the "three steps" strategy.

Seven ministries and commissions jointly issued guidance on strengthening the basic safety management of small coal mines

The State Administration of Work Safety requires the legal representative of small coal mines to go down the well at least 11 times a month.