Liu Haisheng, deputy governor of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. [filephoto]

The State Council also announced yesterday that 21 others including Hou Ren, general manager of Longmei Mining (Group) Co. Ltd., would be given penalties.

In addition, 11 people, including the head of Dongfeng Coal Mine, where the blast took place, had been arrested and would be transferred to judicial organs.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Government has been required to submit profound self-criticism to the State Council.

The State Council asked local governments and all coal mines to learn from the bitter lessons brought by the accident, strengthen their safety measures, and prevent excessive production.

Investigations showed that the deadly blast which went off at 9:22 p.m. Nov. 27, 2005, was blamed on workers who failed to follow safety rules by using the wrong dynamite to deal with a jam in coal storage.