Labor and Social Welfare Secretary Rosalinda Velez announced the immediate closure of the group of smaller operations during a press conference, according to Spanish news service EFE and Reuters.
The specific operations were not named, but are operated by Binsa and located in the northern Mexico state of Coahuila. Fourteen mines will be closed permanently, and the remaining 18 will have temporary suspensions.
Velez reportedly said in the conference she would work in tandem with her secretariat to jointly remove the licences of mines where “serious violations” had been indicated.
According to the EFE report, more than 1000 inspections have been completed since March 2009 – 282 of them this year.
The shutdowns, Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari said, were at the request of the nation’s labor and social welfare secretariat and stem from mines’ non-compliance with safety mandates.
About 95% of Mexico’s coal comes from the Coahuila state.
Binsa, which did not offer comment on the government’s move, also owns the Coahuila coal mine where 14 miners were killed in a 2011 explosion.
Some of the victims of that incident were child laborers.
The latest rash of fatal incidents began late last month, when seven died in a gas-triggered explosion in Muzquiz.
Just 10 days later on August 3, another six miners were killed in a cave-in at Minera del Norte's Mimosa complex in San Juan Sabinas.
Minera del Norte is an arm of Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico.
One of the highest-profile fatal accidents in the country occurred in 2006, when 65 miners were killed in a blast at Grupo Mexico’s large Piedras Negras mine.
