China's Guizhou Province to Reduce Coal Mines 80% by 2013

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources China (Beijing, China)--Following the large-scale merging and reorganization of coal mines in Shanxi, southwest China's Guizhou province recently kicked off another round of provincial-level integration of coal resources.

According to the "Instructive Comments Regarding the Promotion of Merging and Reorganization Between Coal Mine Enterprises," drafted and issued by the Energy Administration of Guizhou province, the province will reduce the number of coal mining enterprises from more than 1,000 at present to less than 200 by 2013.

Guizhou is the largest coal producer in southern China and one of the major coal exporting provinces in China. Coal resources are widely distributed in 74 counties of the province, covering an area of about 70,000 square kilometers. According to statistics of the Energy Administration of Guizhou Province, the province has coal reserves of about 86.4 billion metric tons, ranking it the fifth-large reserve holder in China. In 2010, coal output of the province reached 150 million metric tons.

The province currently has 1,660 coal mining enterprises with a total design production scale of 315.39 million metric tons per year. Of these, 623 produce more than 300,000 metric tons per year, accounting for 76.1% of the total production capacity. But there are only 18 mines with production capacities of more than 1.2 million metric tons per year, and 70 medium-sized mines with capacities between 300,000 1.2 million metric tons per year. Smaller coal mines account for 95% of the mines. These mines are generally much less safe than larger operations.

According to the overall arrangement, all smaller coal mines with capacities of less than 90,000 tons per year, except for a few that are located in places with thinner coal seams, will be shut down by the end of 2012. By the end of 2013, the number of coal enterprises will be 200 or less.

Through mergers and reorganization, an extra-large coal enterprise group will be established, consisting of:

• a 50 million-metric-ton per year group
• two enterprise groups with production capacity of 30 million metric tons per year
• three enterprises with production capacity more than 10 million metric tons per year
• 10 enterprise groups with production capacity of more than 5 million tons per year

By 2015, the production capacity of the province will reach 300 million metric tons per year and more than 60% of the coal output in the province will be controlled by these enterprise groups.

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