(Xinjiang) Zhundong Coalfield

A total of 88.9 billion tons of coal reserve has been prospected in Zhundong Coalfield, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, sources with the Department of Land and Resources in Xinjiang said.

Along with the fully launch of constructing thermal power and coal chemical industrial base in local place, Zhundong Coalfield will play an active role in pushing forward the implementation of advantageous resource transformation strategy in Xinjiang.

Zhundong Coalfield, located in Changji Prefecture and covers an area of 21,800 sq.km, is featured by simple-structured, stable and thick coal seams with good coal quality. Among the prospected 88.9 billion tons of coal reserve, the proven resource reserve has reached 47.9 billion tons, and the predicted resource reserve, 41 billion tons. It is one of the main thermal power and coal chemical industrial bases of Xinjiang, with main coal producing places including Lucaogou, Dajing, Jiangjunmao and etc..

In recent years, Luneng, Shenhua and other 23 domestic enterprises successively put investment in geological prospecting in Zhundong Coalfield. Of this total, 13 are big enterprises and groups. There are 60 planned construction projects, with a total predicted investment of 490 billion yuan.

By the end of June this year, 125 mine prospecting licenses had been established in Zhundong Coalfield, with registered exploration area around 4235 sq.km. Prospecting fund totaling 400 million yuan has been invested and planned to invest in the near future. The regional government will also invest 6 billion yuan to enhance the infrastructure construction in the industrial base, including traffic, power supply and communication. Among which, the water diversion project of the base was started construction on June 19 this year.

As learned, Xinjiang has total predicted coal reserve of about 2190 billion tons, which is mainly distributed in Junggar Basin, Turpan-Hami Basin, Ili River Valley and the north edge of Tarim Basin. Coal resources are suitable for the electric power and coal chemical industries. In the future, Xinjiang will make efforts to build Zhundong, Ili coal chemical industrial base, Kuqa- Baicheng coking coal base in Aksu Prefecture and construct a batch of super large world level thermal power and coal chemical industrial bases.