Zhongmei Guanjiaya Coal Mine experiences roof collapse accident, resulting in 4 trapped personnel dead.

On April 2, 2026, according to a report from Xinhua News Agency, reporters learned from relevant departments in Xing County of Lulin City, Shanxi Province that at 21:15 on April 1, an overburden collapse accident occurred at the Guanjia Ya Coal Industry Co., Ltd. under China Coal Group, leaving four people trapped. At 2:46 a.m. on April 2, the four trapped people were rescued and brought up to the surface by the rescue team; there were no vital signs.

A CCTV News report previously said that reporters learned from relevant departments that during the night of April 1, an overburden collapse accident occurred at the Guanjia Ya Coal Industry Co., Ltd. in Xing County, Shanxi Province, trapping four miners. At present, the rescue teams have arrived on site, and rescue work is ongoing. The Beijing News reported that reporters learned from relevant departments in Xing County, Shanxi, that the Guanjia Ya Coal Mine under China Coal Group may have suffered a safety accident involving an overburden collapse. Staff from relevant departments said the accident trapped six people; three have been rescued so far, and three remain trapped. Related rescue efforts are currently being carried out in an orderly manner.

Information on the official website of the Shanxi office of China Coal Group shows that Guanjia Ya (Xing County) Coal Industry Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as the Guanjia Ya Coal Mine) is affiliated with China Coal Energy Group’s China Coal Group Shanxi Co., Ltd. It was originally formed in July 2009 by China Resources Liansheng through the merger, consolidation, and integration of four coal mines. In February 2025, the company name was changed to Guanjia Ya (Xing County) Coal Industry Co., Ltd. The company is located in Dongpo Village, Weifen Township, Xing County, Lulin City, Shanxi Province. Registered capital is RMB 832 million, and the company has more than 700 employees on the roster.

According to the official website of China Coal Group Shanxi, the mine field belongs to the northern part of the Hedong Coalfield and the eastern edge of the Ordos giant coal-bearing basin. It has been approved for mining the 8-2#、13# coal seam, and the currently mined seam is No. 13. The coal type is gas coal. The designed production capacity is 1.2 million tons per year, making it a low-gas mine. The hydrogeological type is medium. The spontaneous combustion tendency of the coal seam is Category II, meaning it is a self-heating coal seam; coal dust is explosive. At present, the mine has complete and valid permit and licensing procedures, including a mining permit, a production safety license, and a business license, and it is a first-category mine under a safety production standardization management system. On January 16, 2024, it obtained a production safety license for 1.5 million tons per year issued by Shanxi Province’s Emergency Management Department.

An overburden collapse accident refers to the phenomenon in which the upper mine rock layers collapse during the mining process. It occurs mostly at mining and excavation faces and in areas with complicated geological structures. The Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences previously published an article stating that overburden collapse accidents are one of the “five major disasters” of coal mines; among all accidents, their share reaches more than 60%, and the number of casualties accounts for around 40%.

The Interface News noted that in May 2019, a work group for reinforced supervision and targeted assistance in key areas of the “War on the Blue Skies” campaign under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment found that the company’s materials stockyard had not implemented dust control measures: coal stored in the open air outside the silo—about 15,000 tons of raw coal—had not been covered. In response, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment decided to supervise and督办.

In April 2022, the Emergency Management Department of Shanxi Province announced that the “100-day campaign” focused action “tackling major problems to eliminate risks” in the work of risk and hidden-issue investigation and remediation had received public tip-off clues indicating that the company’s coal mining caused cracks in about 10 households’ houses in Guanjia Ya Village in Weifen Township, Xing County. More than 20 people still lived in those houses, creating safety hazards. This issue was listed as a督办 matter that had not yet been resolved under the “100-day campaign” focused action for work safety in Shanxi Province, and the Xing County Weifen Township government coordinated compensation matters between the Guanjia Ya Coal Industry and the villagers.

After that, in December 2023, the company was fined by the Lulin City Emergency Management Bureau due to multiple issues: a fault of pressure gauges on the No. 64 support column of the 13105 fully mechanized longwall top-coal caving working face; improper installation location of the oxygen sensor at the upper corner of the 13105 fully mechanized longwall top-coal caving working face; and incorrect installation location of the anti-shedding rope protection device for the main incline shaft’s suspended personnel conveyance device at the bottom-to-slope-change point.

In November 2025, the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Group entered China Coal Energy Group Co., Ltd. during the third round of its fifth batch of inspections. The public tip-offs received by the inspection group included issues such as the Guanjia Ya Coal Mine’s coal extraction causing water usage exceeding standards, dust pollution, and noise disturbing residents.

In its introduction of Guanjia Ya Coal Mine’s 2024 work on production safety, the official website of China Coal Group Shanxi had previously said, “In accordance with the spirit of documents from higher-level companies and in light of the actual conditions of the mine, we will formulate an implementation plan for a three-year action campaign to tackle safety comprehensively at the root, further strengthen the foundations of production safety work, enhance the level of inherent safety, eliminate accident hazards at the root, and ensure safe production at the mine.”