June 6, 2025 At 19:33 on the day, an accident occurred in the central air inlet shaft of Xiaojihan Coal Mine (hereinafter referred to as Xiaojihan Coal Mine), Shaanxi Huadian Yuheng Coal Power Co., Ltd., killing two people. The Shaanxi Bureau of the State Mining Safety Supervision Bureau has taken the lead in setting up an accident investigation team to investigate the accident. After preliminary investigation, the cause of this accident was: the operators took the hanging basket to carry out gas welding and cutting operations in the wellbore of the central air inlet shaft. When the hanging basket was lifted to 7 to 8 meters away from the wellhead, the wire rope used to lift the lift basket above broke, causing two workers in the hanging basket to fall down from the hole, as well as oxygen cylinders, acetylene bottles and other fire operation tools in the hanging basket to fall downstairs together, resulting in the accident.
1. The main problems initially exposed
(I) The main responsibilities of coal mines are not implemented in place. After outsourcing the replacement project of the water supply pipeline in the central air inlet shaft, Xiaojihan Coal Mine did not effectively supervise the project construction party's operations, and failed to observe the situation where the mechanical and electrical department agreed to the construction party for several days without approval of the construction plan, without formulating safety technical measures, signing safety agreements, and without training personnel.
(II) Subcontract and subcontract the project layer by layer. Xiaojihan Coal Mine outsourced the replacement project of the water supply pipeline in the central air inlet shaft to Shaanxi Risheng Mining Engineering Co., Ltd., and Risheng Company subcontracted the project to Shaanxi Muhe Dingxin Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Muhe Dingxin Company subcontracted the project to self-employed Feng Mouping, and finally hired five people including Wang Moujun, Fan Mou, crane driver, Zheng Moucheng, Li Mouxing, etc. to carry out the operation of the project.
(III) The approval of fire operations is not strictly enforced. The gas welding cutting operation of the old pipeline in the central air inlet shaft of Xiaojihan Coal Mine did not conduct fire operation approval as required, and carried out fire operation without authorization, and failed to evacuate all underground workers in accordance with Article 10 of the "Regulations on Safety Management of Fire Operations in Underground Mines".
(IV) The management of key areas is not in place. Xiaojihan Coal Mine failed to inspect key areas such as central air inlet shafts, and did not promptly discover and stop unapproved projects from entering the site for construction.
(V) Learning lessons from accidents is not in place. Xiaojihan Coal Mine did not deeply learn from the lessons of many domestic mine wellbore fall accidents, and ignored the warning information of various high-risk operations issued by our bureau in the early stage, and learned and implemented it in a formal manner, resulting in the accident that occurred just as the production safety month was launched in June.
2. Related work requirements
All coal mine enterprises and superior companies should strengthen the self-inspection and self-revision of risks and hidden dangers in production safety accidents, deeply learn from the lessons of this accident, and quickly carry out a one-week self-inspection and self-revision of hidden dangers. The investigation and rectification of hidden dangers must be accurately discovered, described and handled accurately to ensure that all kinds of hidden dangers are rectified and eliminated.
(I) Fully implement the main responsibilities. We must deeply learn the lessons of this accident and fully implement the main responsibilities of the enterprise. First, we must strengthen the system of optimization of the safety responsibility system and clarify the entire process requirements for pre-construction approval, supervision during the process, and acceptance after completion. Second, we must improve the safety management system and implementation, strengthen on-site safety supervision, increase the frequency of inspections in key areas, and strictly grasp the "three violations". Third, we must improve safety management capabilities, strengthen safety training for operators, and resolutely eliminate untrained homework.
(II) Strictly review the qualifications of "foreign personnel and foreign commission teams". It is necessary to comprehensively investigate and clear illegal out-of-commission operation projects, strictly investigate the qualifications of out-of-commission units, eliminate affiliation, subcontracting, etc., strictly prohibit "contracting instead of management" and "contracting without regulating", and strictly prohibit "subcontracting layer by layer". The construction of "two foreign countries" shall not start without a special safety agreement. The "two foreign countries" shall be included in the management system of self-operated units. It is required that the "two foreign countries" be established before the construction of the "two foreign countries" be registered, and the list shall not be replaced at will.
(III) Strictly implement "one operation, one measure". We must first formulate safety technical measures when there are work, there must be briefings when there are measures, there must be signatures when there are briefings, there must be supervision when there are work, and there must be records when there are supervision, and ensure that safety measures publicity and training is in place. We must strengthen the safety control of fire operations, strictly implement the "Regulations on Safety Management of Fire Operations in Underground Mines". During fire operations, we must strictly carry out inspection and confirmation and signing procedures, and implement the "whoever signs is responsible" model to manage high-risk operations.
(IV) Further improve the quality and efficiency of daily inspections and patrols. We must focus on supervision blind spots and weak links to conduct dynamic inspections and patrols to ensure that inspections and patrols cover all work areas, ensure that inspections and patrols are omitted, and promptly discover and stop illegal operation of projects and personnel in construction that violate regulations.
(V) Carry out warning education regularly. We must deeply learn the lessons of this fall accident, combine the 2025 National "Production Safety Month" activities, as well as the focus of open and secret inspections and spot inspections in the second quarter of the central safety assessment and inspection, and organize miners to carry out a series of activities such as "Everyone talks about safety, everyone can respond to emergency - find safety hazards around you" to carry out accident warning education work in a solid manner.
Source: Emergency Propaganda and Education Center, Linfen Emergency Management Bureau
