Authorities in northern China's Shanxi province have vowed to suspend or hold back the construction of coal mines with a capacity of 120 million tonnes from 2016 to 2020.
Besides cutting its coal production capacity by over 100 million tonnes, the province will also suspend the construction of more coal mines over the period to further reduce coal production capacity, according to a recent coal industry development plan published by the local government.
As of the end of 2015, Shanxi had or was constructing 1,078 coal mines with a total production capacity of 1.46 billion tonnes per year.
Among the coal mines, 541 have a production capacity of 880 million tonnes per year and 537 are under construction. B
y the end of March 2016, the number of mines in operation rose to 562 with a capacity of 910 million tonnes per year.
At the same time, the province will also reduce the number of coal mines by restructuring the companies.
With a quarter of China's known coal reserves, Shanxi aims to limit the number of its mines to 900 by 2020, with an average capacity of 1.8 million tonnes annually, according to earlier reports.
Earlier this month, the province said it will close down 18 collieries and cut 17 million tonnes of coal production capacity this year.
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