China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) is endeavoring to help more than 10,000 small coal mines to resume production after the severe winter weather, a source with the SAWS told Xinhua on Thursday.

"More than 2,700 coal mines saw production halted by power failures caused by heavy snow in the central and southern provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou," Li Yizhong, head of the SAWS, has said.

Li said more than 13,200 coal mines, the majority of them small coal mines, were scheduled to resume production soon, as maintenance work was completed after the Spring Festival holiday period.

The SAWS would stringently inspect safety equipment and procedures at these mines before allowing them to resume normal production.

During the Spring Festival period last month, coal production remained at 64 percent of capacity nationwide and 96.7 percent of large state-owned mines remained in production.

"The large state-owned coal mines have played a crucial role in dealing with the snow havoc and we shall make efforts to build more large, safe and efficient coal mines," Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2008)