Inner Mongolia will no longer approve new coal mining projects

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Author/Source: http://coal.in-en.com/ Date: 2009-4-7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the Economic Commission of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the region has **required the coal industry to moderately control raw coal production in light of the market supply and demand situation in 2009. In addition to projects for on-site coal conversion, this year Inner Mongolia will focus on advancing the construction of those coal projects that have already been approved or are under construction, accelerating the process of integration and technological upgrades in the coal industry. No new coal projects will be approved; it is expected that the total coal production capacity to come online or be completed this year will exceed 90 million tons. It is understood that this year, Inner Mongolia plans to produce 470 million tons of raw coal throughout the year, with the intention of keeping the additional production capacity resulting from technological upgrades and new coal projects within 100 million tons. At the same time, efforts will continue to consolidate and shut down small coal mines with an annual production capacity of less than 300,000 tons, with the goal of closing at least 30 such mines throughout the year in order to achieve the target of phasing out 4.78 million tons of outdated coal production capacity over the whole year. On this basis, Inner Mongolia will focus on advancing the development of large-scale modern coal bases in order to further improve the level of the coal industry. It is reported that in addition to projects for on-site coal conversion, Inner Mongolia will this year focus on advancing the construction of those coal projects that have already been approved or are under construction. Plans include starting the construction of the first phase of the Dong Er Hao open-pit mine in the Shengli coal field, as well as large-scale modern coal projects such as the Weijiamao open-pit mine in Jungar. Efforts will be made to complete large-scale modern coal projects like the Zahanor open-pit mine and the Baiyinhua No. 2 and No. 4 open-pit mines. It is estimated that the annual increase in coal production capacity due to new projects will be 63.5 million tons, while the increase in already completed coal production capacity will be 30.9 million tons.