Hunan province has approved a new plan to classify and restructure its coal mines, as the government seeks to improve safety following a series of deadly accidents.

The provincial government, led by Governor Mao Weiming, passed the plan at an executive meeting on September 22. The plan, which has not been publicly released in full, categorizes mines into three groups: those to be closed and exited, those to be upgraded, and those to be expanded.

The government said the plan aims to eliminate outdated capacity, promote technological upgrades and build model mines to address safety risks at their source.

The move follows a gas outburst at the Yangmeishan coal mine in Lianyuan city on August 14, which left seven people missing. The accident occurred despite a province-wide safety overhaul launched after a massive explosion at a fireworks factory in Hunan on May 4 and a deadly coal mine gas explosion in Shanxi's Qinyuan county on May 22.

In response to the accidents, Hunan has been pushing a campaign to crack down on illegal activities in mining, chemicals, fireworks and other high-risk industries. Local officials, including Governor Mao, have conducted unannounced inspections of mines.

As of August 11, 12 coal mines in Hunan, including eight state-owned and four private operations, had been approved to resume production after passing inspections, according to the Hunan Emergency Management Department. Another 37 mines were undergoing rectification.

On August 25, the provincial work safety committee office held a meeting to launch a special campaign for major safety inspections and rectification across all mines in the province. The campaign focuses on ten key issues, including illegal mining, concealed working faces, falsified safety monitoring data and the concealment of the number of workers underground.

Data from Sxcoal shows Hunan currently has 64 operating coal mines with a total capacity of about 13 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). Of these, seven are high-gas mines and 22 are gas-outburst mines, accounting for 45.3% of the total number and 42.3% of total capacity. The province also has 22 mines under construction with a combined capacity of 4.89 Mtpa.

The new plan is a follow-up to a previous "three-category" initiative introduced in 2020, which aimed to cap the number of coal mines in the province at 100 by the end of 2021, mainly targeting those with an annual capacity of less than 300,000 tonnes. The new plan is being formulated under the framework of China's 15th "Five-Year Plan".