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China MINING
Coal
In the first half of the twentieth century, coal mining was
more developed than most industries. Such major mines as Fushun,
Datong, and Kailuan produced substantial quantities of coal for
railroads, shipping, and industry. Expansion of coal mining was a
major goal of the First Five-Year Plan. The state invested heavily
in modern mining equipment and in the development of large,
mechanized mines. The longwall mining technique was adopted widely,
and output reached 130 million tons in 1957.
During the 1960s and 1970s, investment in large mines and
modern equipment lagged, and production fell behind the industry's
growth. Much of the output growth during this period came from
small local mines. A temporary but serious production setback
followed the July 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which severely damaged
China's most important coal center, the Kailuan mines. It took two
years for production at Kailuan to return to the 1975 level.
In 1987 coal was the country's most important source of primary
energy, meeting over 70 percent of total energy demand. The 1984
production level was 789 million tons. More than two-thirds of
deposits were bituminous, and a large part of the remainder was
anthracite. Approximately 80 percent of the known coal deposits
were in the north and northwest, but most of the mines were located
in Heilongjiang and east China because of their proximity to the
regions of highest demand
(see fig. __, Coal Deposits and Major
Mining Areas).
Although China had one of the world's largest coal supplies,
there
still were shortages in areas of high demand, mainly because of an
inadequate transportation infrastructure. The inability to
transport domestic coal forced the Chinese to import Australian
coal to south China in 1985. The industry also lacked modern
equipment and technological expertise. Only 50 percent of
tunnelling, extracting, loading, and conveying activities were
mechanized, compared with the
95-percent mechanization level found in European nations.
Data as of July 1987
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