North China's Shanxi Province, the country's largest coal
producer has proved additional coal reserves of 8.8 billion tons
since 2004, said local Shanxi Evening News on Friday.
The overall coal reserves of the province amount to more than
260 billion tons, an official with the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of
State Land and Resources was quoted as saying.
With an estimated annual coal reserve consumption of 1.2 billion
tons, supply to the country's coal industry can be guaranteed for
at least 200 years, the official said.
The annual coal production of Shanxi is 580 million tons.
According to the statistics released on the bureau's website,
the newly found coal reserves added up to 8.45 billion tons from
2004 to 2006.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)