Coal-rich province continues to eliminate outdated mining capacity

TAIYUAN - North China's coal-rich Shanxi province plans to cut 16 million tons of backward mining capacity in State-owned coal mines this year.

The provincial State-owned assets supervision and administration commission said Wednesday that last year, provincially-owned coal mines cut 12.75 million tons of coal production capacity by shutting down 10 mines with 14,000 employees.

The province issued its first mining project license in 13 years earlier this month, saying it would be one of 19 new coal mine projects expected to showcase the province's advanced coal mining production capacity.

Zhang Hongyong, deputy director of the commission, said the commission would seek to strengthen and restructure State-owned coking, coal-mining equipment, power-generating and other firms under its management, in a bid to break the dominance of coal miners.

With proven coal reserves of 270.9 billion tons, Shanxi produced more than 16.2 billion tons of coal from 1949 to 2014, accounting for one-quarter of the total coal output across the country.

Over the past five years, the province has eliminated 51 million tons of outdated coal production capacity and closed 56 mines.

In March, the provincial land and resources department launched a three-month campaign against illegal mining in a reinforced effort to curb the resurgence of mining activities in closed coal mines.

Zhou Jianchun, director of the department, said that the department would check all coal mines during the campaign, registering both closed and operating coal mines on its electronic database.

Based on the work, the department will establish a blacklisting system to give timely warnings about irregularities in mining, he said.