On January 8, the National Work Conference on Mine Safety Production was held in Beijing. The conference stressed that guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we must fully implement the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee and the Central Economic Work Conference, earnestly follow the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, act on the guiding principles of the National Emergency Management Work Conference, and thoroughly implement the Opinions issued by the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.

We will further deepen reform across the board in mine safety production, advance in a coordinated way the three-year action to tackle root causes and tough problems in mine safety production and the strict implementation of the Eight Rigorous Measures, strengthen source prevention, process control and emergency management, and make solid efforts to ensure safety in accordance with the law, strengthen safety through science and technology, boost safety with talent development, and foster safety through culture.

We will press for accountability and capacity improvement, continue to advance whole-chain governance of mine safety management, go all out to prevent major and extraordinarily serious mine accidents, strongly promote the transformation of the mine safety governance model to proactive prevention, and safeguard high-quality economic and social development with high-level mine safety.

The conference noted that 2024 is a critical year for fulfilling the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Faced with a grave and complex mine safety situation, mine safety regulators and inspectors at all levels and mining enterprises across the country have worked with one heart and one mind, forged ahead under pressure, shouldered heavy responsibilities, fulfilled their duties and overcome difficulties.

We have taken implementing General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on workplace safety as the top political task, fully enforced the Opinions of the General Offices and the Regulations on Coal Mine Safety Production, continued to vigorously push for the effective implementation of the three-year root-cause tackling action and the strict enforcement of the Eight Rigorous Measures, and tightened and fulfilled whole-chain safety responsibilities.

We have comprehensively carried out dynamic surveys of hidden disaster-causing factors and advanced governance of major disasters, continuously strengthened the prevention and control of major safety risks and emergency response, steadily improved the efficiency of mine safety supervision and inspection, scaled up technological empowerment and safety infrastructure development, and strengthened the development of supervision and inspection teams, thus promoting a steady improvement in the national mine safety situation.

The conference emphasized that mine safety production is currently facing even more severe and complex challenges. In the face of new situations, changes and circumstances, we must maintain high vigilance and focus on the overall trends and big picture.

We must properly balance the relationship between Party building and operational work, uphold and strengthen the Party’s centralized and unified leadership over mine safety production, and pursue coordinated progress in both areas.

We must properly balance development and safety, always bear in mind the overall interests, foster positive interaction between high-quality development and high-level safety in the mining industry, and support the new development pattern with a new security architecture.

We must properly balance law enforcement and services, strive to improve law enforcement efficiency and serve enterprise development, and conduct law enforcement in a strict, standardized, fair and civilized manner.

We must properly balance addressing symptoms and tackling root causes: we should not only focus on preventing major and extraordinarily serious accidents and achieving dynamic clearance of major hidden dangers, but also aim for the two fundamental goals, comprehensively improve the competence of practitioners, vigorously develop new quality productive forces, and build a long-term mechanism for mine safety production.

We must properly balance planning and implementation: we should be good at making plans and diligent in implementation, solving problems and defusing conflicts one by one.

We must advance in an integrated way the three-year action to tackle root causes and tough problems in mine safety production and the strict implementation of the Eight Rigorous Measures, further deepen reform in the field of mine safety production in all respects, strengthen coordination and coordination, organize follow-up reviews and inspections, and clarify on an item-by-item basis what roots to address and what tough problems to tackle in light of actual conditions. We will remove blockages and difficulties, shore up weak links, and effectively raise the level of intrinsic safety in mines.

We will make every effort to advance the advanced governance of major disasters, continue to deepen the dynamic general survey of hidden disaster-causing factors, and urge mining enterprises to implement comprehensive measures such as personnel prevention, technical prevention, engineering prevention and management prevention for different types of disasters.

We will strive to promote the development of the dual prevention mechanism, improve the mechanism for the control of major safety risks, advance the improvement of the self-inspection and self-correction mechanism for major hidden dangers by enterprises, and strengthen the development of mine safety culture.

We will earnestly strengthen monitoring, early warning, response and accident investigation and handling, establish and improve a hierarchical response mechanism for mine safety risk monitoring and early warning, and press for the fulfillment of responsibilities for early warning, verification and handling by daily regulatory authorities and mining enterprises. We will intensify upgraded investigations and listed supervision over concealed accidents, major risky accidents and typical accidents, so that an accident in one mine serves as a warning to all mines.

We will strive to improve the quality and efficiency of supervision and law enforcement, enhance categorized and graded supervision, improve the coordination mechanism for supervision and law enforcement, adhere to equal emphasis on punishment and education, and continue to strengthen whole-process law enforcement oversight. We will promote the transformation of supervision and law enforcement from "quantity-oriented" to "quality-oriented" and from "loose, weak and soft" to "strict, tight and tough".

We will vigorously raise the development level of new quality productive forces for mine safety, improve the mechanism for scientific and technological innovation, and in accordance with the principles of seeking truth from facts, adapting to local conditions, adopting one policy for one mine and advancing step by step, focus on reducing personnel, enhancing safety and improving efficiency. We will steadily promote the intelligent construction of mines, strengthen scientific and technological support and guarantee, and promote the precise integration of advanced technologies with mining enterprises.

We will vigorously improve the safety quality of practitioners, placing the improvement of personnel quality at the forefront of consolidating the safety foundation. We will effectively enhance the performance capacity of investors, managers, technicians, supervisors and frontline practitioners, strengthen safety training and the management of training institutions, ensure the allocation of professional personnel, tighten safety management of mine outsourcing projects, and urge mining enterprises to strengthen the development of their own teams.

We will fully consolidate responsibilities for mine safety production in an integrated manner, strengthen supervision and inspection over parent companies of state-owned mining enterprises, continue to improve the mechanism for "supervising government responsibilities", focus on supervising key personnel and key matters, and target common problems, prominent problems and long-standing tough issues.

We will comprehensively improve the capacity of supervision and inspection, strengthen the development of political organs, improve the long-term mechanism of "strengthening ideals and convictions through learning, enhancing competence through learning, cultivating healthy conduct through learning and promoting work through learning". We will make the education on Party discipline regular and long-term, continue to reduce burdens on primary-level authorities by addressing formalism, foster a down-to-earth work style in organs, law enforcement and supervision, and further enhance execution and implementation capacity.

Members of the Party Leadership Group and the Chief Safety Officer of the State Administration of Mine Safety Supervision attended the meeting. Principal responsible persons of provincial-level mine safety supervision departments, persons in charge of central mining enterprises in Beijing, and cadres at or above the division level of various departments of the national administration participated in the meeting. Responsible persons of relevant departments of the State Council were invited to attend. Five supervision institutions and central enterprises delivered exchange speeches at the meeting.

(Source: General Department, State Administration of Mine Safety Supervision)