China’s coal mining hub Shanxi is expected to close down 32 collieries this year, which had combined production capacity of 20.74 million tonnes per annum (mn t/y), according to a notice recently issued by the provincial government.
The landlocked northern province is China’s second biggest coal mining region by production after Inner Mongolia. It produced 971.09 mn t of coal in 2019, accounting for a quarter of the country’s total.
The ongoing crackdown is part of Shanxi’s plan to shut down all small-sized coal mines, with annual capacity below 600,000 t by the end of 2020, in a move aimed at enhancing its industrial structure by raising efficiency and improving safety conditions.
Notably, this is the final year of the “13th five year plan” on resolving excess capacity in coal industry and concerned departments of each area ought to push for the phase-out of collieries with a mining capacity lesser than 600,000 t/y and to get rid of inactive enterprises.
Governments of city level administration will take responsibility in capacity resolving, coordinated planning and result inspection. Non-operational companies are required to come up with targeted closure plan for collieries involved, make proper arrangement for employees, and restore the environment.
The Shanxi government has also vowed to cap the total number of coal mines at 900 by 2022 and to ban approvals for new coal mining projects smaller than 900,000 t/y. The province had 954 coal mines with a combined capacity of 994.75 mn t/y as of end-2019.
In total, Shanxi had phased out nearly 116 mn t of coal production capacity and shut down 106 coal mines by the end of 2019, as per official statistics.
By Aditya Sinha
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