(Adds latest accident) BEIJING, May 1 (Reuters) - China has jailed a coal mine owner for life for a gas blast that killed 21 people and for a subsequent cover-up, Chinese media said on Tuesday. A local court sentenced Wang Jianjun, the owner of a private mine in Jincheng in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, over the March accident, the Beijing News said. The newspaper said Wang had ordered an "outrageous cover-up" of the deaths by sealing off information, sending miners home and destroying evidence. The sentence was the harshest punishment meted out in recent years in the world's deadliest coal mining industry, with a death toll of 4,746 people in 2006, the Beijing News said. "It is a good signal to society. Harsh punishment to clean up such chaos highlights the party and government's efforts to improve work safety," Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, was quoted as saying. Wang was also fined 1 million yuan ($129,800). Two of his managers were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, and another 19 defendants, including eight civil servants, were also jailed. Shanxi, where a quarter of China's coal is produced, suffered another fatal accident on Monday when an explosion killed 14 miners at an illegal colliery in Yangquan city, Xinhua news agency said. China has been at pains to clean up its coal mines, where production is often pushed beyond safety limits to meet robust demand and profitability in the booming national economy. But collusion between officials and mine owners is widespread, and cover-ups of accidents are not uncommon. Last year, authorities amended the criminal code, more than doubling the length of jail terms punishing fatal mining accidents and cover-ups. A total of 4,000 small and unsafe coal mines would be shut down by the end of this year, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
