State Administration of Work Safety chief Li Yizhong said lax laws and regulations as well as weak enforcement have contributed to the country's bad work safety situation, China Daily reported.

Li said harsher punishments needed to be handed down to operators who ignored work safety laws and jeopardised the safety of workers.

“We should be determined to use the severest punishment to overawe offenders," Li said, adding China's parliament was looking at amending existing laws.

China's criminal law orders that work safety offenders can be given a maximum seven-year prison sentence, with time able to be reduced once behind bars.

Chinese mining companies who fail to meet national work safety standards can be fined a maximum of 200,000 yuan ($US25,000) if an accident occurs.

Li said compared to the penalties in developed countries, there was plenty of room for China to revise its criminal law penalties.

As China's booming economy drives up the demand for coal, mining accidents and fatalities have become a daily occurrence, with unskilled migrants making up much of the mining workforce.

China Coal Information Institute president Huang Shengchu told China Daily that mining was dangerous and poorly paid, and only farmers from the poorest regions chose to work in what are often underground death traps.

While official figures estimate that about 8200 workers were killed in mining-related accidents last year, some labour rights groups estimate the real number of mining deaths in China to be as high as 20,000 each year.