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, local media said on Tuesday.

Wang Jianjun, the owner of a private mine in Jincheng in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, received the sentence from a local court for the March accident, the Beijing News said.

In March, he ordered an "outrageous cover-up" of the deaths by sealing off information, sending home miners and destroying evidence, the newspaper said.

The sentence was the harshest punishment meted out in the world's deadliest coal mining industry -- with a death toll of 4,746 people in 2006 -- in recent years, it added.

"It is a good signal to the 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 fined 1 million yuan ($129,800), and two managers were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Another 19 defendants, including eight civil servants, were also jailed.

China has been at pains to clean up its coal mines, where production is often pushed beyond safety limits in the face of robust demand and profitability with a booming economy.

But collusion between officials and mine owners is widespread, and cover-ups of accidents are not uncommon.

Last year, authorities more than doubled the length of jail terms one can receive for fatal mining accidents and cover-ups in an amendment to the country's criminal code last year.

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.

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