Bloodier Coal

Peter Parks / AFP / Getty Images

News today that three managers received life terms for an explosion that killed 105 miners in early December of last year. Thirteen other heavy sentences were handed out to other executives who were running the mine at nearly double approved production rates, totally ignoring safety regulations and all the depressingly familiar shenanigans mine owners get up to. Is this likely to be a deterrent to other coal mine owners? Not a chance. With the price of coal having risen almost 20 per cent in the last year, the incentives for owners of small scale mines (the big, state owned mines have a semi-respectable safety record) to cut corners are even greater. And sadly, with the country even more desperate for coal after those terrible winter storms, the progress that has been made in lowering mine deaths (down 20 per cent last year to around 4000 officially, though the real numbers are probably three to four times that) is very likely to be reversed. Already during the crisis, the government was forced to allow thousands of small mines --precisely the type where the worst abuses take place-- to reopen. In which case, you can be sure that many, many more unofficial mines will also be emboldened to reopen. Grim times ahead for miners and their families, who more than any other group are paying the price for China's boom in blood and anguish.