BEIJING, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced three people to life in prison and handed jail terms to another 14 for their roles in a coal mine explosion that killed 105 miners late last year, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Those sentenced to life included the manager in charge of production at the Xinyao Coal Mine and an investor in the mine in the northern province of Shanxi, where a gas blast tore through the shaft on Dec. 5.

At the time of the explosion, 128 miners were working -- far more than the maximum 60 allowed.

The company had increased output and expanded production to new coal beds without approval, said the Xinhua report, which described the court hearing as "a public trial held in a stadium" in Linfen, a major coal-producing area of Shanxi.

"To conceal their illegal operation, the company even built a secret pass between the two coal beds and shut the entry during authorities' inspection," the report said.

China's coal mining industry is the world's deadliest, claiming close to 4,000 miners last year. Despite government campaigns to clean up the sector, managers still push production past safe limits to maximise profits.

In the Xinyao mine, a major coal-producing area, the mine managers delayed reporting the accident to local authorities and sent workers down the shaft to rescue their colleagues, the report said.

Other managers at the mine were sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years, and the company was fined 185.2 million yuan for illegal trade in explosives, illegal work on an unapproved coal bed and tax evasion.

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)

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