China has closed down thousands of small coal mines in recent years to improve workplace safety and integrate coal resources.

The past year witnessed how Ma Huazhi, former manager or a township coal mine in east China's Shandong Province, turned his mine into a modern multiplication farm and prepared to try his hand at raising pigs of fine breed.

The former workshops at Ma's coal mine, which produced 60,000 tons a year, have been adapted into 24 pig houses, including structures to house pregnant pigs, and for farrowing, nursing and fattening.

The miners have been re-recruited as raisers.

Ma plans to produce more than 10,000 pigs next year and build his farm into "the largest pig multiplication farm north of the Yangtze River", China Daily quoted him as saying Thursday.

His mine was not closed for safety reasons, he stressed. "It was simply because our production capacity was low," he told China Daily. "Now I don't have to worry about accidents."

The site is just one of thousands of small coal mines that have been closed, or converted for other production such as textiles products, across the country in recent years.

Statistics from the State Administration of Work Safety show that China had 23,388 small coal pits with average annual production of less than 30,000 tons by the end of last year.

Small mines account for one-third of the nation's total coal production, but contribute to more than two-thirds of the death toll.

The administration has promised to close 4,000 coal mines that fail to meet safety standards by the end of this year as part of measures to improve work safety.

Coal is China's main source of power, making up 68 percent of the overall energy consumption in 2004.

Source: Xinhua