In the season holidays, Governor Chen Deming presented a wreath to a monument at Chenjiashan Colliery in Tongchuan, more than 100 kilometers from the provincial capital Xi'an. The monument was erected in memory of the 166 people killed in a deadly gas explosion on Nov. 28, 2004.

Altogether 293 miners were working down the pit when the accident occurred, and only 127 miners who worked near the entrance were rescued. The accident was the deadliest in China's mining industry in 44 years-- after a gas explosion in 1960 killed 187 people at Longshanmiao colliery in Pingdingshan, a city in central China's Henan Province.

The state-owned Chenjiashan Colliery has been closed down ever since for a safety overhaul.

As he expressed his new year's greetings to all the colliery staff, Chen sent a clear message that the government will spare no effort to make the pits safer.

He urged management of the colliery to draw a lesson from the tragedies, take concrete measures to exploit, and minimize the risk of coal-bed gas, and send fewer miners down the pit at a time.

"When the colliery is allowed to resume operation again, I hope Chenjiashan will become the safest mine in the province and acrossthe country," Chen told the colliery staff.

Chenjiashan coal mine employs more than 3,400 people and produces 2.3 million tons of coal a year. Enditem