A north China court sentenced a forklift driver to death on Tuesday for killing an ethnic herder after a dispute over pollution coming from a local mine, the second of two coal mine-related murders to stir controversy over the last month in the resource-rich Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Local authorities are now looking at environmental problems that may have resulted from the exploitation of the region's coal reserves, an issue that many believe lies beneath the recent unrest, officials and experts said.

A month-long overhaul has been launched to clean up or close poorly-run coal mines in the region. Officials say the regional government has also drafted a compensation plan that will force mining companies to pay extra fees for setting up mine's in undeveloped areas.

These fees will be used to subsidize local residents who feel that they have been negatively impacted by the mines.

Industry observers say the creation of the compensation plan is a signal that the government will no longer tolerate the improper exploitation of its natural resources by mining companies.

Zhang Guoliang, deputy secretary-general of the Inner Mongolia regional government, said the government is also drafting plans that will require mining companies to share profits with local residents.

"Mining firms should cooperate with farmers and herders, who have lost their traditional ways of livelihood as a result of exploitation," Zhang said.

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