China’s Inner Mongolia to close 22 small coal mines this year

BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) – China’s top coal mining region Inner Mongolia will shut 22 small coal mines this year with a combined annual capacity of 11.1 million tonnes, local authorities said in a statement on Monday.

The closures are in line with Beijing’s push to streamline the industry by shutting down small, inefficient mines and adding new capacity at bigger, more modernized mines.

Inner Mongolia expects to complete a 2020 target of cutting 54.14 million tonnes by 2018, according to the statement.

The region will also continue to phase out more small coal mines with outdated equipment and give their capacity quota to big miners, the authorities said.

China has targeted cutting its total coal production capacity by about 150 million tonnes this year as part of a drive to cut pollution.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Tom Daly; Editing by Susan Fenton)