Jilin coal giant up and running
Shanghai. June 22. INTERFAX-CHINA - Newly established Jilin Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd. (JCIG), which was formed through the merger of five mining firms, has officially started operation in China's northeastern Jilin Province, a local government official told Interfax on June 19.
The mining firms were based in five different cities in the province, namely Liaoyuan, Tonghua, Hunchun, Shulan and Shansonggang, an official from the Jilin branch of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), who asked to remain anonymous, said. JCIG now has 50,000 workers and total assets of RMB 10.9 billion ($1.60 billion).
The new company also acquired Jiaohe Coal Machine Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and Jilin Northeast Coal Industry Environment Protection Co. Ltd., the official said. Those companies had a combined annual production capacity of 20.56 million tons of coal in 2008.
Jilin has little in the way of coal reserves and needs a large coal company to more easily invest in and exploit coal resources in more coal-rich provinces, the official said.
JCIG has 2.1 billion tons of coal reserves outside of Jilin. Most of these reserves are in southern China's Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, as well as in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
-WV