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China sets up

firm develop

biggest coal mine

BEIJING: China has set up a state-owned shareholding company to develop the country's largest coalmine and railway lines, port facilities, power stations and ships that will use the coal, a company official said on Monday.

The Shenhua Group Corporation has a registered capital of 2.58 billion yuan ($311 million) and will develop the Shenfu-Dongsheng coalmine, which stretches from Shaanxi province to Inner Mongolia with coal reserves of 223.6 billion tonnes, a quarter of China's known reserves, he said.

The total cost of the project over the next 15 years would be 60 billion yuan ($7.23 billion), he said.

The firm would also build pit power stations with a combined generating capacity of 942,000 kw and buy ocean-going vessels to ship the coal to foreign markets, he said.

China is already the world's biggest coal producer and a major coal exporter.-Reuter