The visually lyrical and heartbreaking film, which won the Mead’s prestigious award this year for best in show, follows three miners both below and above the ground, and documents the price that they and their families have paid for their participation in what is arguably the world’s deadliest profession.

Coal mining has always been dangerous. Scores die each year in mining accidents in the US. But this figure pales besides the estimated 20,000 people a year (according to the film) who perish in accidents in China’s primitive mines. The government’s official numbers are lower, but independent observers like Robin Munro, a human-rights activist at the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, say that the true toll is routinely under-reported by mine owners and provincial officials who often have a personal financial stake in these lucrative operations and the prosperity they bring to the rural communities where the mines are located.

A trailer for the film can be viewed on the official website. The filmmakers are raising money through their website for one of the miners in the movie, who was paralyzed after a mining accident. Read more about the filmmaker, Yuanchen Liu, from NYU, where he recently graduated.

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A rock burst occurred in the Qianqiu Coal Mine in the city of Sanmenxia, Henan province, following a 2.9-magnitude earthquake on Thursday evening.

Of the 75 miners working in the shaft when the accident happened, 14 managed to escape and four were confirmed dead soon after accident. The remaining 57 workers were stranded in the mine.

Rescuers rescued eight workers as of Friday and found four bodies while searching for the trapped Saturday morning, bringing the total death toll to eight.

The incident in Henan comes less than a week after a gas explosion killed 29 workers in a coal mine in Hunan province, the worst accident in recent months, and also in the wake of fatal blasts at mining sites in Guizhou and Yunan. An AP report today in The Guardian notes that annual fatalities at China’s coal mines are now a third of the reported highs in 2002, though an AFP report cites campaigners who believe the true figures have been understated.

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Post tags: coal industry, coal mines, earthquake, Henan, mine safety, mining accidents
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Five of the workers were rescued, while one climbed out of an air shaft of the Xialiuchong Coal Mine, the statement said.

The work safety administration said rescue work was complete as no other miners were working at the time of the explosion.

CCTV said that the mine’s operating license had been revoked in the first half of this year because it did not adopt measures to pump out dangerous gases from underground, but that the mine continued production without permission.

Although there has been improvement in mining conditions over the past few years and a slow drop in annual fatalities, China’s coalmines are still the deadliest in the world. BBC adds:

In 2010, 2,433 people died in coal mine accidents in China, although this was an improvement on the toll of 2,631 a year earlier.

The industry’s safety record has improved in recent years as smaller, illegal mines have been closed, but labour rights groups say the actual death toll is likely much higher than official statistics, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment.

Annual fatalities are about now at about one-third of the high of nearly 7,000 who died in 2002.

See also: Death Toll Reaches 17 in China Coal Mine Blast via CDT.

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The noises came from a 920-foot (280-meter) pipe that was drilled late Sunday to allow fresh air into the illegal mine in the Heilongjiang province city of Qitaihe in the northeast of China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Twenty-six miners were trapped Aug. 23 when workers broke through into an adjacent flooded pit.

Xinhua said three miners were rescued Saturday and one body has been recovered.

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Four miners were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in western-most China’s Xinjiang region Thursday, with one seriously injured, Xinhua news agency said.

A dozen workers were in the mine at the time of the explosion while seven escaped the shaft, it said. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Meanwhile the death toll in a flooded mine in south China’s Guangxi province rose to four, with 18 still trapped while rescuers worked frantically to save free them, Xinhua said in a separate report.

The flood occurred on Saturday when 71 miners were in the mine, it said.

In east China’s Shandong province Thursday, the number of miners trapped in a coal mine in Zaozhuang city dropped to 28, following efforts to save workers stuck in the shaft following a Wednesday night fire.

Since the fire broke out, a rescue team of over 1,000 have been working to save the over 90 miners in the mine, Xinhua said.

Twenty-three miners remain trapped in a coal mine in southwest China’s Guizhou province that also flooded on Saturday.

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Rescuers scrambled to reach the miners at the Niupeng coal mine in the county of Pingtang in Guizhou province on Saturday morning, according to a staffer from the Pingtang work safety bureau. The staffer would only give her surname, Chen, as is typical for officials.

Chen confirmed rescuers were at the mine and the cause of the flood was under investigation, but did not have any details about the rescue.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 29 miners were working in the mine when the flooding occurred and that eight made it out safely.

In a separate coal mine accident also Saturday, at least three miners died, leaving 19 others trapped when portion of the mine collapsed in the city of Heshan in China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said an official at the Heshan city work safety bureau who refused to be named.

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Trade volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, set up in 2002 to end the People’s Bank of China’s monopoly on gold trading, surged 43 percent in the year to Oct. 31 from the same period in 2009, Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the bourse, said Dec. 2. The country’s gold consumption may double in the next decade, the World Gold Council forecasts.

Higher gold prices put at risk China’s efforts to clean up an industry that relies on cheap labor working without adequate protection, according to Zhao Qingming, a Beijing-based senior analyst at China Construction Bank Corp. Migrant workers move from mine to mine without contracts, and are often unable to get insurance or even compensation, the miners say.

China cut the number of licensed gold mines from 1,200 in 2002 to fewer than 800 last year. Yet miners are still flocking to the mountain to feed Chinese gold demand that is growing faster than the mines can satisfy it.

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China’s size and speed of growth invite superlatives. Here are a few about the fuel for its growth. China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal, and the deadliest, in terms of miners killed. It is also the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

To be fair, China is also fast expanding its renewable energy sector, and trying hard to improve energy efficiency. But it still intends to continue to get most of its energy from coal for decades to come. And in the midst of continued economic growth, and an epic move of hundreds of millions of Chinese from villages to cities, China’s overall emissions are expected to keep increasing for at least another 20 years.

That’s sobering news for the planet, and for China – which is already paying a steep environmental and human cost for its reliance on coal.

Coal miner Zhong Guangwei is part of that cost. He’s 37, and the odds are against him reaching 40. After just 10 months of working in a small, private mine in Shanxi province, drilling holes in the wall of a mine shaft and placing sticks of dynamite to blow out the coal, he developed a severe case of pneumoconiosis – better known as “black lung disease.” He’s had it about three years, and it usually kills within six.

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A shed of Xiaosongdi Coal Mine exploded after explosives in it were detonated at 9 am last Thursday when Zheng Chunyun, boss of nearby Yuejing Coal Mine, arrived with more than 80 people armed with knives and steel bars.

Nine people were killed and 48 others injured in the incident, most of them were with Zheng.

“Autopsies show some of them were gunned down before the blast,” said Lu Qingwei, head of the public security of Luxi County, where the mine is located.

But Lu declined to give more details about the case. Investigations are underway and the results may be announced Tuesday, Lu said.

And in Sichuan, 29 miners were trapped in a flooded mine before being rescued. Also from Xinhua:

Water inundated the Batian Coal Mine in Weiyuan County at 11 a.m. Sunday when 35 miners were working underground. Thirteen of the miners managed to escape by themselves while 22 were trapped.

After the flooding, deputy mine manager Cheng Ronghui and the general foreman Zhang Hongliang led a team of seven into the mine in an attempt to rescue the remaining 22 miners. However, the rescue mission failed and they themselves became trapped.

Cheng said, “I had no time to get changed when I heard the mine flooded and seven of us rushed to the scene to rescue people.”

When Cheng led the group into the mine and despite the bottom of the mine being submerged, the trapped miners could still move on the air bridge inside the mine pit and the safety tunnel was in use.

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The gas leak occurred early Saturday morning in a pit owned by Pingyu Coal & Electric Co Ltd based in Yuzhou city in the central province of Henan, although 239 people escaped.

Rescuers had said they expected there to be little chance of any missing miners being found alive and have now found the last five bodies, state news agency Xinhua reported, bringing the final death toll to 37.

Another gas leak in 2008 at the same mine killed 23 people.

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