Q&A on the New "Standards for Determining Major Accident Hazards in Coal Mines"

Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Management released the new version of the "Standards for Determining Major Accident Hazards in Coal Mines" (Order No. 21 of the Ministry of Emergency Management, hereinafter referred to as the "Standards"), which will be effective from July 1, 2026. To better understand and implement the "Standards," a relevant person in charge of the National Mine Safety Administration answered questions from reporters regarding the "Standards."

Q: Please introduce the background and significance of the revision of the "Standards"?

A: This revision is a concrete measure to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and批示 on work safety, as well as the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. The core objective is to make the identification of major accident hazards in coal mines more scientific and precise. Specifically, it is mainly based on the following four considerations:

First, it is an important practice to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and批示. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to deeply carry out risk and hazard screening and treatment, and to resolutely prevent and curb major and extraordinarily serious production safety accidents. This revision of the "Standards" adheres to the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and批示, focuses on solving the persistent problem of "low quality of hazard screening and poor effectiveness of rectification," implements General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on work safety into concrete actions, and truly makes the system "have teeth" and "be electrified."

Second, it is an inevitable requirement to implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. The "Opinions on Further Strengthening Mine Safety Production Work" issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council in 2023, and the "Hard Measures to Prevent and Curb Major and Extraordinarily Serious Production Safety Accidents in the Mine Sector" issued by the Work Safety Committee of the State Council in 2024, both set clear requirements for improving the quality of hazard screening and rectification. The three-year action for tackling the root causes of work safety also lists "carrying out the action to upgrade the system of standards for determining major accident hazards" as one of the "eight major actions." Meanwhile, the "Coal Mine Safety Production Regulations," effective from May 1, 2024, revised the categories of major accident hazards from 15 to 17. This revision is both a concrete action to implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and a statutory requirement to adapt to the adjustment of higher-level laws.

Third, it is a specific response to problems reflected by the grassroots. In the practice of recent years, the original "Standards" exposed problems such as the outward expansion of major accident hazard determination situations, imprecise expression of some clauses, and inconsistent enforcement standards, to which the grassroots responded strongly. This revision of the "Standards" retracts the authority for determining major hazards, deletes some hazard situations with minor on-site harm, further focuses on systemic situations with obvious actual harm, precisely expresses relevant clauses, maximizes the avoidance of ambiguity and disputes, and unifies enforcement standards.

Fourth, it is a realistic need to profoundly learn lessons from coal mine production safety accidents. In recent years, many coal mine accidents caused by typical illegal and illegal production have occurred. For example, the "8·14" major sand and mud inrush accident at Chaida'er Coal Mine in Qinghai in 2021, the "2·22" open-pit coal mine collapse accident in Alxa, Inner Mongolia in 2023, the "6·15" major transportation accident at Huangjiagou Coal Industry in Lvliang, Shanxi in 2023, the "3·11" major gas explosion accident at Xieqiao Coal Mine of Huaihe Energy Group in Anhui in 2024, and this year's "5·22" extraordinarily major gas explosion accident at Liushenyu Coal Industry Co., Ltd. of Shanxi Tongzhou Group in Changzhi, Shanxi. Some problem situations exposed in these accidents did not have corresponding clauses in the original "Standards." This revision of the "Standards" adheres to the principle that "where accidents occur, standards are improved," and effectively transforms bloody lessons into rigid constraints of the system.

Q: What is the overall approach of this revision of the "Standards"?

A: To ensure that the "Standards" are established, workable, and truly effective, the approach of this revision can be summarized as "four persistences":

First, persist in acting in accordance with laws and regulations. Strictly refine the 17 situations stipulated in the "Coal Mine Safety Production Regulations," select clauses with great harm to work safety from existing laws, regulations, and standards, or provide technical interpretations of clauses, do not set other clause provisions out of thin air, and integrate some content from the interpretation of the original "Standards" into the main text. This solves the problem of arbitrary expansion of the scope of determination and improves the seriousness and authority of departmental rules.

Second, persist in seeking truth from facts. Focus on the "urgency," "danger," and "harmfulness" of hazard situations, strictly determine conditions, highlight the major actual harm of hazards, eliminate situations that do not constitute actual harm, and maximize the solution to the problem of generalization in the determination of major accident hazards. For example, specifically clarify situations such as false gas inspection and missed inspection, and loss of explosion-proof performance of electrical equipment.

Third, persist in precise expression. Accurately describe some clauses and nouns strongly reflected by the grassroots to avoid situations where supervision and inspection departments and coal mining enterprises give expanded interpretations or cause ambiguity disputes on the same clause, maximizing the precision and uniqueness of clause provisions.

Fourth, persist in following up and learning lessons from accidents. Systematically sort out and study the problems exposed by typical accidents in recent years, and incorporate hazards that may cause serious harmful consequences into the revised "Standards."

Q: Please introduce the drafting process of this revision?

A: The Ministry of Emergency Management and the National Mine Safety Administration attach great importance to the revision of the "Standards." The drafting process is roughly divided into 4 steps:

The first step is to concentrate efforts on drafting. Give full play to the on-site experience advantages of grassroots supervision forces, organize 7 provincial bureaus of the National Mine Safety Administration (Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Guizhou) to form working groups according to their professional expertise, and carry out centralized revision and drafting work.

The second step is to extensively solicit opinions. After the formation of the initial draft, multiple special seminars were organized, and opinions were solicited from the public. Regarding the more than 800 opinions and suggestions received, personnel from departments and enterprises were organized to study and demonstrate them one by one. More than 600 were adopted or partially adopted, which can be said to have maximized the gathering of industry wisdom.

The third step is to conduct in-depth on-site research. Persist in asking for advice from the grassroots, penetrate on-site research throughout the entire revision process, go deep into the grassroots front line many times to conduct field research, and widely listen to voices from all sides to ensure that the standards are "grounded and truly effective."

The fourth step is to strictly follow the promulgation procedures. We strictly followed the departmental rule formulation and issuance procedures, performed statutory procedures such as legality review, bureau meeting deliberation, consistency assessment with macro-policy orientation, risk assessment, and ministry meeting deliberation, ensuring the legality, scientific nature, and operability of the "Standards." The entire revision work of the "Standards" lasted nearly 2 years.

Q: What are the main situations stipulated in the new version of the "Standards"?

A: The main situations in the new version of the "Standards" can be summarized into six major categories:

First, production and construction category. Mainly includes organizing production exceeding capacity, intensity, or staffing; mining across layers or boundaries; the slope angle of an open-pit coal mine is greater than the designed maximum value or the slope undergoes severe deformation without effective measures; new coal mines producing while under construction; during the reconstruction and expansion of coal mines, producing in the reconstruction and expansion area, or production in other areas exceeding the designed scope and scale.

Second, "one ventilation and three preventions" category. Mainly includes working under gas overruns; outburst mines not implementing outburst prevention measures as required; outburst mines and high-gas mines not establishing gas drainage systems or systems not operating normally; ventilation systems are imperfect or unreliable; spontaneous combustion is severe without effective measures.

Third, water disaster prevention and control category. Mainly includes failing to investigate main water-filling sources and channels, using non-specialized water exploration and drainage equipment, failing to carry out water exploration and drainage as required, falsifying drilling or geophysical exploration data or conclusions, failing to retain water-proof coal pillars, and drainage systems and capacity not meeting regulations.

Fourth, rock burst prevention and control category. Mainly includes failing to carry out rock burst hazard level identification as required or falsifying identification, failing to evacuate personnel and continuing mining operations when danger warnings occur, mining rock burst coal seams not complying with relevant regulations, and support length and strength not meeting regulations.

Fifth, electromechanical equipment system category. Mainly includes using equipment or processes that should be eliminated and endanger production safety; failing to establish monitoring and communication systems as required or systems not operating normally; failing to use dual-circuit power supply systems as required.

Sixth, safety management category. Mainly includes, after implementing overall contracting for production and operation, engaging in production without re-obtaining or or timely changing the work safety license, or the contractor subcontracting again, as well as outsourcing underground mining and excavation faces and roadway maintenance operations; during restructuring, merging, or splitting, failing to clarify work safety responsible persons and work safety management institutions, or after completing restructuring, merging, or splitting, failing to re-obtain or timely change the work safety license. In addition, this revision also clarifies 19 other major accident hazard situations such as concealing mining and excavation faces and the number of people underground.

Q: What are the important changes in this revision of the "Standards"?

A: There are 5 aspects of changes in this revision of the "Standards," summarized by the five characters "收, 减, 准, 明, 增":

First is "收": Changed from "open-ended" to "closed-ended," deleting relevant expressions in the original "Standards" that could expand the scope of determination, no longer issuing interpretations according to previous conventions. Major accident hazards are limited only to the situations listed in the new standards, and the National Mine Safety Administration is responsible for explaining disputed situations arising during execution.

Second is "减": Significantly deleted hazard situations that do not constitute actual harm, returning to the essence of coal mine on-site management, focusing on the major actual danger of clauses, and maximizing the solution to the problem of "major hazards not being major."

Third is "准": Aiming at some clauses and nouns with unclear expression and ambiguity strongly reflected by the grassroots, further express them accurately in the revision to ensure that the meaning of the standards is unique and the situations are precise during execution.

Fourth is "明": Aiming at clauses that have long-standing disputes and are unreasonable in the execution process of the original "Standards," adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, make adjustments and modifications, and make clause provisions more specific and clear.

Fifth is "增": Learn lessons from accidents, draw inferences from one instance, and combine with the continuous development of new coal mine technologies, processes, and equipment to add some hazard situations with great harm and strong concealment.

Q: There is only one month left before the implementation of the new version of the "Standards." How will the next steps for publicity, implementation, and implementation work be carried out?

A: The vitality of rules and regulations lies in execution. To ensure the full and accurate implementation of the new version of the "Standards" without compromise, we will focus on the following work:

First, quickly organize publicity and training. The National Mine Safety Administration will hold a publicity video conference in the near future to deeply study and understand the important significance, revision principles, main content, and key changes of the revision of the new version of the "Standards." Urge coal mine safety supervision and inspection departments to learn first and learn deeply, ensuring that supervision and inspection law enforcement personnel accurately understand the legislative spirit and proficiently master clause provisions. Urge coal mining enterprises to implement their main responsibilities, organize internal learning and publicity, and promote the formation of a good atmosphere of "respecting, learning, abiding by, and using the law."

Second, urge enterprises to conduct self-inspection and rectification. Before the implementation of the new standards, urge coal mining enterprises to organize a special hazard screening covering all systems and operation locations. Comparing with the new version of the "Standards," especially the newly added and modified clauses, proactively discover problems, rectify hazards, and improve levels. Major accident hazards discovered by coal mining enterprises themselves shall not be used as a basis for punishment. This is a "window of active error correction" for enterprises.

Third, strictly regulate law enforcement inspections. Good systems also rely on strong supervision and inspection law enforcement to guarantee implementation. We will continue to urge supervision and inspection departments at all levels to persist in laws must be observed, law enforcement must be strict, and violations must be investigated, promoting the implementation of the "Standards" in place with strong law enforcement.