Beijing, May 9, 2007
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) says that 4,000 small coal mines will be shut down by the end of the year in a circular issued on April 30, 2007. It said it would focus not only on illegal coal mines with poor safety facilities but on all small coal mines with impact on resources and the environment, or fail to comply with the country's industrial policy.
The process will be bottom-up, starting in the coal-producing towns themselves, said the commission. It asked local governments to examine all coal mines with production capacity of less than 300,000 tons and decide what to do with them. The country aims to reduce its number of small coal mines to 10,000 by 2010.
The commission said coal mines with production capacity of less than 300,000 tons would no longer get building permits during the 11th Five Years Plan and ongoing small projects would be integrated with other coal mines where possible, expanded if conditions permit, or halted.