China's biggest coal producer, China Shenhua Group, plans to
invest 37.5 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion) by 2011 to build mining
facilities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The Xinjiang subsidiary of the state-owned Shenhua Group will
build new mines with a collective annual capacity of 16 million
tons.
The company also intends to develop a 3.2-million-ton-per-annum
coal liquefaction project, auxiliary generation facilities, as well
as railways to transport coal from the region, according to a
statement from the National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC).
These projects are scheduled to be operational by 2011,
according to the NDRC statement. NDRC statistics also show that
coal reserves in Xinjiang are estimated to be 2.19 trillion tons,
or 40 percent of China's total.
"Xinjiang is the focus of our future development because of the
region's coal reserves," said a company official from Beijing-based
Shenhua, who also confirmed the new spending in Xinjiang.
"The biggest hurdle for developing Xinjiang's coal reserves is
transportation - we just cannot get the coal out of there cheaply,"
Zhu Deren, vice-president of the China Coal Industry Association,
was quoted as saying.
But these problems should be solved once the new projects kick
into operation, Zhu added.
(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2006)