Workers are paying the price as Beijing’s last coal mine closes - Business Day

Mentougou — Gutted factories, rusting pickaxes and crumbling homes that will soon be abandoned dot the scarred hills in Mentougou — home to Beijing’s last coal mine, slated to close this year as the city battles choking smog.

One of China’s oldest mining towns, it has powered the capital for nearly 300 years. But more than 270 coal mines in the area have been shut down over the past two decades, as China has scrambled to cut carbon emissions and switch to renewables.

The last remaining mine — which employed about 7,000 workers at its peak — is scheduled to fully close later this year.

“Once the Datai coal mine closes there won’t be any coal mines in Beijing left,” said Ma Shihui, a miner from the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The young workers have already collected their severance cheques and moved to cities to find work. But hundreds of others such as Ma have little hope of finding new jobs due to old age and having no rights to farmland in their villages.

Ma worked with explosives at the Datai mine from 2016 and earned about 10,000 yuan ($1,400) a month. Now his family survives on a 1,540-yuan monthly hand out from the mining company.

“I’m already 50 ... If you’re over 45 years old, they don’t want you,” he said. “My family doesn’t have farmland anymore... So I can’t go back. Even if you go back it’s no use, you couldn't survive.”

According to Beijing Jinmei Group, the state-owned enterprise (SOE) that owns the mines near the capital, the government-mandated closures will mean the loss of 6-million tonnes of coal production capacity and the “resettlement” of more than 11,000 workers, mostly migrants.

Lung disease

Those left behind, like Ma, go twice a day to sign an attendance sheet at the mine office. They also help sweep away shredded documents and recycle mining waste. “I hope the company will be able to arrange some work for me at their other mines in Ningxia or Shandong,” said Ma. “I don’t mind even working as a cleaner.”

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https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/asia/2020-03-22-workers-are-paying-the-price-as-beijings-last-coal-mine-closes/

2020-03-22 06:27:00Z
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