Regional Coal: China closes 8,648 coal mines for safety violations: Report

China's government ordered 8,648 coal mines to stop production because they failed to comply with new safety measures implemented last year, the State Administration of Work Safety said as reported by Bloomberg.

The mines in 25 provinces either didn't comply with an order to apply for safety permits by July 13 or failed tests for the permits, the agency said in a statement on its Web site Friday.

?The coal mines must stop production and pass safety tests, otherwise they'll be shut down by this end of the year,? the administration said. The government will cut power and destroy facilities to force closure if necessary, it said.

The number of deaths in mining accidents totaled 3,149 in the first seventh months of the year, a 3.5 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, the administration said earlier this month. More than 120 miners died on Aug. 7 in Xingning in southern China, where investigators discovered that as many as 65 mine owners and supervisors of the illegal mine were local cadres who ignored safety procedures.

China's cabinet said it will begin a campaign against corruption of Communist Party officials who have become owners of mines, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Sept. 1, citing Premier Wen Jiabao. The government will arrest local officials who have offered ?political protection? for local mines in exchange for a share of the mine's profits, Xinhua reported. (*)