BEIJING, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Chinese officials announced the discovery of an underground coalfield in western Xinjiang Uighur region near Tibet with reserves of 23 billion tons.
China's annual coal demand is expected to reach 3 billion tons in three to five years, making the discovery significant, China Daily reported Tuesday.
The coalfield, about 2,625 feet underground, covers an area of nearly 120 square miles in Shanshan County in the Turpan Basin, the report said.
Jiang Bing with the National Energy Administration said the coal reserves in the entire area could be 200 billion tons.
The Xinjiang province, with estimated coal reserves of up to 2.19 trillion tons, accounts for 40.5 percent of China's total coal reserves, the report said.
Officials said the region's several coalfields remain unexplored because of the prohibitive cost of transportation to other parts of the country.
The new filed was reported to be rich in low-sulfur steam coal and is close to the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway, the only rail line connecting Xinjiang to inland cities.
Xinjiang is near Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north and Pakistan and India to the west.
