Two officials falsified time of Huize mine accident

Two local officials in Southwest China's Yunnan province falsified the time of an illegal mining accident that killed five people in May, according to an investigation report released by authorities in Qujing, CCTV reported on Friday.

The report found that the May 31 accident in Huize county was caused by organized illegal phosphate mining and aggravated by inadequate safety precautions and failures in local government oversight.

Investigators said the heads of Huize county's emergency management and natural resources departments agreed to change the reported time of the accident from 2:30 am to 4:30 am, even though police had received an emergency call at 2:58 am. The false information was subsequently submitted to higher authorities by the county government.

The accident occurred near a forest fire prevention road in Nagu township, where a group led by a man surnamed Wang had arranged an excavator, dump trucks and lookouts to illegally extract phosphate ore.

Mining began at about 1 am on May 31. The excavator dug into a roadside slope, creating an overhang that destabilized the earth above and triggered a collapse at about 2:30 am.

Two people were buried and a third was partially trapped. During an attempted rescue, a second collapse buried three more people and trapped the survivor again.

Five people died, four from suffocation after being buried and one from head injuries. The injured man was rescued and taken to hospital, it said.

Investigators attributed the initial collapse to unsafe excavation and said the subsequent casualties were compounded by an attempted rescue carried out without assessing the risk of another collapse.

The report also identified serious regulatory failures. Local authorities had failed to detect illegal mining activities in remote areas, while inspections and monitoring by natural resources officials were found to be ineffective.

A deputy township head had led 18 inspections in 2026 before the accident, none of which identified illegal mining activities or related safety hazards.

The illegal operation consumed about 190 metric tons of phosphate ore, causing direct mineral resource losses of more than 83,000 yuan ($12,413).

A man surnamed Chen, who helped organize transportation for the mining operation, was detained on June 1 on suspicion of committing a crime.

Investigators recommended administrative penalties for 11 other people involved and called for suspected misconduct by public officials to be referred to disciplinary and supervisory authorities.