In order to increase production, a coal mine in Changzhi, Shanxi Province, went on a coal mining spree at an unapproved coal mining face.
On the "No. 15 Coal Seam Construction Progress Map" provided by the mine, it is marked that the length of the return air along the 150101 coal mining face is 218 meters, and the length of the transportation along the groove is 212 meters. However, the on-site measurement found that the length of the return air groove of the working face was 311 meters, and the length of the transportation groove was 311 meters. Faced with the measurement results, the person in charge of the mine admitted that the motive for the falsification of the working face drawings was to produce more coal.
This is the second working group of the Shanxi Provincial Mine Safety Production Supervision Group of the Office of the State Council Safety Commission, which included the crackdown on the hidden working face of coal mines into the key supervision content, and verified an illegal act in Changzhi.
The inspector of the supervision group said that in recent years, affected by factors such as high-intensity supply guarantee and high profit drive, some coal mining enterprises have adopted illegal means to conceal the mining face in order to produce coal early, quickly and more, and cover up illegal activities such as over-capacity production, multi-face mining, and over-layer cross-border illegal mining. This is more concentrated in the normal production and construction of coal mines.
Since 2023, the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the State Bureau) has organized and carried out a concentrated crackdown on hidden coal mine faces, and a total of 510 coal mine hidden faces have been cleaned up across the country.
From January to February this year, the State Bureau organized five provincial-level bureaus to set up law enforcement teams to carry out special inspections in five coal-producing provinces: Inner Mongolia, Henan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Shaanxi. At the same time, the Shanxi and Heilongjiang Mine Safety Production Supervision Group will also include the crackdown on the hidden working face of coal mines into the key supervision content. The law enforcement team and the supervision team collected clues through reporting telephones, e-mails, mailboxes, etc., and verified many problems through open and secret visits and direct penetration.
Inspectors from the Guizhou Bureau of the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau inspect whether coal mines have made bulletin boards as required
The inspection team of the Second Supervision and Law Enforcement Division of the Guizhou Bureau of the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau inspected the mine drawings after ascending the shaft
Detachment from safety supervision and supervision is frightening
"How much coal will you mine in 2023?" "About 60,000 tons." "How many coal mining faces will you arrange in 2023?" "One." "The mining progress of this working face has not changed much from the beginning of the year, and there are not many tunneling roadways, where does the 60,000 tons of coal come from?" "This ......" This is the scene of the law enforcement team formed by the Supervision and Law Enforcement Department of the Yunnan Bureau of the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau to carry out special supervision of the hidden working face of the coal mines in the jurisdiction. An inspector from the supervision and law enforcement department of the Yunnan Bureau found that the mine had only been converted from a construction mine to a production mine for only one year, and the first mining face had basically not been mined due to the impact of faults, but there was a large amount of coal in the coal bunker. Subsequently, the inspectors of the department found the source of 60,000 tons of coal in the mine's "internal measurement" drawings and related ventilation data reports. The "internal measurement" drawings show that the mine has 2 coal mining faces and 2 excavation faces in the 01 mining area, but they are not plotted in the drawings for inspection; In the wind measurement report, there is a big difference between the air distribution volume of the 01 mining area and the air demand of the existing working face. With this information, the inspector of the Service was able to locate the concealed face. "The reason why it is necessary to carry out special inspections to crack down on the hidden working face of coal mines is that coal mining enterprises often reduce the safety production conditions and weaken the on-site safety management when mining coal at the hidden working face, which is very easy to cause major production safety accidents." An expert from the supervision group of the supervision and law enforcement department of the Yunnan Bureau said. The deliberate concealment of the mining face to evade supervision has exposed that coal mining enterprises have not strictly implemented the responsibility for the investigation and rectification of major accidents, failed to run mines, manage mines in accordance with the law, and manage safety in accordance with the law, and have a weak sense of the rule of law. In recent years, some coal mines have been secretly producing at hidden working faces, and accidents have occurred frequently. In 2023, the "8·21" major gas explosion accident in Yan'an Xintai Coal Mine in Shaanxi Province, the "12·20" major transportation accident in Jixi Kunyuan Coal Mine in Heilongjiang, the "4·2" large gas deflagration accident in Jikun Mining in Baishan, Jilin, and the "6·27" large coal and gas outburst accident in Honglin Coal Mine in Fuxin, Liaoning Province all have hidden working face production problems. These concealed working faces have problems such as gas monitoring system fraud and personnel positioning system fraud, which are out of safety supervision and supervision, and cause endless harm. According to the members of the relevant supervision group, the main reasons for the concealment of the working face in the coal mine are reflected in four aspects. First, some coal mines have complex systems, unreasonable mining layouts, tight mining continuity, and illegal layout of multiple working faces and concealment. Second, some coal mines are driven by profits, and cover up illegal activities such as arranging working faces beyond the specified number and organizing production beyond their capacity by concealing working faces. Third, some coal mines with small well fields and depleted resources are arranged with irregular working faces or over-layer cross-border mining. Fourth, the actual controllers of some coal mines or superior companies blindly issue unrealistic output and profit targets, and coal mines organize production in violation of laws and regulations in order to meet the targets.
Shanxi Xiexi Yangquan Coal Industry Co., Ltd. underground false sealing
In fact, during the 2023 concentrated crackdown on the hidden working faces of coal mines, the State Bureau will let coal mining enterprises across the country take the initiative to report the hidden working faces through ideological mobilization and policy guidance, but with little effect. The subjective willingness of some coal mines to conceal the working face is relatively strong, and some regulatory departments also have problems such as low subjective willingness and lack of ability to crack down on the hidden working face of coal mines. According to the reported statistics, 14 of the 24 coal-producing provinces have hidden working faces in coal mines. Among them, 106 coal mines in Heilongjiang Province took the initiative to report 327 hidden working faces. Coal mines in other provinces generally have a fluke mentality, and the initiative to self-inspect and report hidden working faces is insufficient. Provincial-level coal mine safety supervision and supervision departments found 182 hidden working faces in 77 coal mines. Among them, the coal mine safety supervision department found 69 coal mines and 170 hidden working faces, accounting for 89.6% and 93.4% respectively. Regulators identified 8 coal mines and 12 hidden working faces, accounting for 10.4% and 6.6% respectively. From the perspective of the production and construction types and status of coal mines with hidden working faces, there were 55 coal mines in production, accounting for 71.4%, and 22 coal mines under construction, accounting for 28.6%. There were 52 coal mines under normal production and construction, accounting for 67.5%, and 25 coal mines that were suspended for rectification, accounting for 32.5%.
In addition, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Gansu, Hunan, Yunnan and other provinces have been found to have hidden working faces in the number of coal mines accounted for a relatively high proportion of the total number of underground coal mines. The above situation exposes that the existence of hidden working faces in coal mines is relatively common.
Private and small and medium-sized coal mines are the majority
A few days ago, the fourth working group of the Shanxi Provincial Mine Safety Production Supervision Group of the State Council Safety Committee Office came to Shanxi Xiexi Yangquan Coal Industry Co., Ltd. The mine is the only private mine in Yangcheng County and is under mine construction. After repeated searches and verifications, the ambulance team members used sledgehammers to strike, identify and confirm, and finally opened the No. 9 seal. In the enclosed area, cables, mobile transformers, etc. are impressive. In the face of the facts, the mine manager finally admitted that the plan of the No. 3 coal seam excavation project provided to the supervision team was a fake drawing, and there were two other false seals, which were constructed to avoid safety inspections. It is understood that most of the hidden work faces investigated and dealt with involve private coal mines and small and medium-sized coal mining enterprises, exposing outstanding problems such as weak awareness of the rule of law and weak safety foundation of this type of enterprises. Among the 77 coal mines and 182 concealed working faces identified by the provincial coal mine safety supervision and supervision departments, 41 are small mines, accounting for 53.2%, 23 are medium-sized mines, accounting for 29.9%, and 13 are large mines, accounting for 16.9%; There are 52 private coal mines, accounting for 67.5%, and 25 state-owned coal mines, accounting for 32.5%. According to the members of the relevant supervision group, there are four main factors in private coal mines and small and medium-sized coal mines. First, the price of coal is very profitable, and the person in charge of such coal mines is more likely to be driven by profit and die for money. Second, there is little investment in safety, and the person in charge of the coal mine has a weak sense of the rule of law, and the psychology of speculation is more likely to overshoot and cross the border, resulting in the appearance of hidden working faces. Third, the reserves of such coal mines are relatively small, and it is more likely to occur cross-border illegal mining, so as to increase the mining volume by concealing the working face. Fourth, the professionalism of the person in charge of the coal mine is not strong, the risk awareness is weak, and the workers obey the requirements of the person in charge of the coal mine, and the layers are out of control and out of control. Some industry insiders said that coal mines will design production capacity every year, but the annual mining capacity cannot exceed 10% of the design capacity, and the monthly mining volume cannot exceed 10% of the average monthly mining capacity. Some private coal mines and small and medium-sized coal mines blindly pursue profits, increase the amount of coal mined, emphasize production over safety, and artificially create major safety hazards, which can easily lead to safety accidents. According to the analysis of this industry insider, the current trend of coal prices is lower, profits are lower than in previous years, and many private coal mines ensure the profits of enterprises by increasing the amount of mining, and it is more likely to have the problem of over-capacity production of hidden working faces. Private coal mines and small and medium-sized coal mines have concealed working faces in a variety of ways. According to the members of the relevant supervision group, judging from the cases of concealed working faces in coal mines, the working faces were concealed by means of "opening skylights", "digging tunnels" and "setting up sliding doors", and the methods of fraud were stealth mutation and pattern renovation. For example, Shanxi Xiexi Yangquan Coal Industry and Changsheng Coal Mine in Shache County, Xinjiang have built airtight and sprayed to camouflage as roadways, Wupai Coal Mine in Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province has been constructed in a closed manner and disguised as roadways with wooden boards and sandbags, and Wuxing Coal Mine in Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province has set up temporary wind barriers and piled up materials to block the entrance to the hidden working face. "In order to conceal the working face, some coal mines do not install safety monitoring systems and personnel location monitoring systems, false gas detections and omissions, major disasters are not treated, and even over-layer cross-border mining of coal resources is very likely to cause serious accidents." A member of the Steering Group said.
An inspector from the Yunnan Bureau of the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau entered the hidden working face under the roadway floor
Strike hard to clean up the hidden work surface
In response to the above phenomenon, experts from the relevant supervision group said that it is necessary to improve the way of supervision and supervision, go to the key points, and grasp the key points to improve the efficiency of law enforcement. To this end, on the basis of the concentrated crackdown on the hidden working face of coal mines in 2023, the State Bureau will also carry out a special inspection operation to crack down on the hidden working faces of coal mines from January to February this year. The State Bureau organized five provincial-level bureaus to set up law enforcement teams to dig deep and investigate violations of laws and regulations such as hidden working face operations in coal mines in five coal-producing provinces. At the same time, the Shanxi and Heilongjiang Mine Safety Production Supervision Group will also include the crackdown on the hidden working face of coal mines into the key supervision content. During the special inspection operation to crack down on the hidden working faces of coal mines, the law enforcement team randomly inspected and inspected a total of 33 coal mines, and investigated and dealt with 4 coal mines and 8 hidden working faces. Among them, there are 3 coal mines and 7 hidden working faces that come from clues reported by the masses. The members of the relevant supervision group said that according to the clues reported by the masses and the coal mines sorted out by the supervision group, the focus is on the areas where there are many coal mines under production and construction, many coal mines with serious disasters, many coal mines with integration and reorganization and technological transformation, and many illegal cases of hidden working faces. "The law enforcement teams and supervision groups adhere to the combination of uphole and downhole, online and offline, and data on-site, through the distribution and positioning of personnel, air volume distribution, electricity consumption, production sources, transportation volumes, gas sources, water inflows,