Word: mining
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...woman in her charge--shrunken to the size of a ventriloquist's doll--stared forward, as if examining the summer heat. She was clearly beyond making connections, so in a sense she no longer was a person. Yet I connected to her in her blankness, because potentially it was mine too, as it was Manchester...
...reality, the government's efforts are little more than black smoke and trick mirrors. Although local cadres have dutifully reported illegal-mine closures, many are secretly being kept open. In desolate places like Guizhou, there is no other way to make money. (Many provincial officials are shareholders in illicit, privately owned mines.) In other areas the ban has been unevenly enforced, creating a deadly problem: as some mine shafts are blocked by government inspectors, those still in operation receive less ventilation, increasing the chances of a gas explosion. Despite Beijing's highly publicized campaign, 3,200 miners have died...
...unlicensed, unnamed mine near the village of Zhongzai, a bedraggled corps of 25 workers doesn't wait for the cover of night: even though the mine is illegal, no one has bothered to come check this remote corner of Bijie township. Blackened, sinewy men pull massive lumps of coal from a slimy tunnel. The miners disappear for up to five hours at a time into the cramped, disorienting dark, crouching low to heave their pickaxes into the crumbling blackness. To pass the time, some light cigarettes, risking a deadly explosion. The pay for a day's work...
...Little wonder then that illegal mines mottle the landscape, even if some counties now produce so much that the price of coal has plummeted. With most of the small mines operating at barely profitable levels, workers are rarely supplied with labor contracts or insurance. The only piece of paper regularly produced by mine owners is a document waiving responsibility should any accident happen. Many of the miners are illiterate, so they simply press a black thumb to the disclaimer in lieu of a signature. Widow Zhang was promised compensation for her husband's death two months ago by a municipal...
...never documented. Remoteness isolates local cadres from responsibility, and they know that a bad safety record could jettison their hopes of promotion. It's the rare case that comes into full light: a few weeks ago, an unusually zealous national media discovered that the deaths of 77 tin mine workers in Guangxi province had been hidden for weeks...