The Chinese government has ordered about 7000 of its coal mines to suspend production by the end of this year because they are unsafe. The State Administration of Coal Mine Safety has already published the first group of 1,324 mines that are required to stop production and meet national safety standards. If they do not, they will be shut down permanently.

Industry insiders said the suspension will leave a huge number of miners jobless, but coal supply will only be slightly affected because most of the pits involved are small.

Administration figures indicated that China has about 24,000 coal mines, which satisfy 70 per cent of the country's annual energy demand. However, because of the transient nature of mining employment, no official statistics on the number of miners are available.

China Daily reports some local governments and officials have been protecting poorly equipped coal mines, where accidents have claimed an average of 18 miners a day in the first six months of this year. In the United States and other developed countries, the annual death toll in coal mines is generally no higher than 40.