China wastes 28 bln tons of coal in 20 yrs

The coal resources recovery rate in China has always been low. At present, such rate is only 30% in China, which falls short of half of the rate in some developed countries in the world. From 1980 to 2000, China had wasted 28 billion tons of coal resources, the China Youth Daily reported.

Shanxi is China's largest coal production province. However, the average coal resources recovery rate in Shanxi now stands at only 40%. In some villages, the rate can only reach 10%-20%. To produce one ton of coal, coal miners will normally consume 5-20 tons of resources, according to the latest figure published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in its latest report titled "China Energy Blue Paper for the Year of 2007".

The low coal resources recovery rate is mostly caused by the backward exploitation methods, the blue paper says.