The Office of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety has recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Work Safety of Coal Mines Involved in Mergers and Reorganizations (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for comments from the relevant entities by June 3.
According to the Draft for Comment, any enterprise undertaking a merger or reorganization shall meet four requirements including "any coal mine of the enterprise has no major or more serious accident due to negligence in the past year"; and any coal mine to be merged or reorganized shall fulfill three conditions including "causing light disasters and having good resources as well as conditions for machine mining". The Draft for Comment states that an enterprise undertaking a merger or reorganization shall establish and improve a guarantee system for inputs in work safety, strictly follow the provisions on the withdrawal and use of work safety funds and simple reproduction maintenance fees related to coal production, and ensure that the work safety funds are put in place. The Draft for Comment also stresses that stronger regulation shall be imposed on coal mines involved in mergers and reorganizations, so as to strictly prohibit the participation of any unqualified coal mines.