China has warned coal miners should not produce beyond their approved capacity in the name of the government's call to boost supply, following a series of mining accidents this month.

This was said in a video meeting held by the safety commission office of the State Council and the Ministry of Emergency Management last week.

Measures were also discussed to prevent major coal mine accidents from happening, to create "a good environment" for the upcoming 100th anniversary of founding of the Chinese Communist Party, which falls on July 1.

The meeting stressed that major accidents have kept going on since the beginning of this year, reflecting some deep-seated problems, such as companies were too eager to lift production, leading to unsafe practices, and supervision departments failed to do a good job.  

Soaring coal prices attracted some coal mines to seek for higher profit by expanding production under the guise of boosting supply in response to the government's policy, thereby denting their safety awareness in production.

Early this month, a coal mine accident in central China's Henan province killed eight workers due to gas leak, one day after another gas outburst in northeast province of Heilongjiang, which, fortunately, didn't cause casualties.

Bodies of three miners had been retrieved as of 8:09 a.m. June 14 after an iron mine flooding trapped 13 workers in Daixian county, north China's Shanxi province, on June 10. The accident prompted the government to halt all non-coal mining operations and start an across-the-board safety inspection immediately.

High prices are to blame as one of key reasons for recent mine accidents. The global commodity inflation, partly linked to major economies' strong rebound post the pandemic, has boosted prices for everything from steel to coal.

To ease coal price spikes, the government called miners to strengthen production, but highlighted "under the premise of strict implementation of safety standards". Some miners, however, took the advantage to enhance production to seek for high profit while ignoring their safety responsibility.

While not all accidents are caused by human factors, many cases could have been averted if more proactive measures had been taken.

Recent coal mine accidents will keep the domestic market hovering at high levels. This may eventually weigh down the government's efforts to cool down the market ahead of July 1.

(Writing by Alex Guo  Editing by Tammy Yang)
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