The Biggest Piece of Coal in China

The Xinjiang Province, a huge, sparsely populated region in Northwest China, began hosting China's largest coal chemical project this month. Xinwen Mining Group, based in the Sandong Province, has invested $327 million (2.6 billion yuan) in the facility, which will have estimated annual sales of $183 million, or 10 million tons a coal.

This large plant is a needed response to small, dangerous, and sometimes illegal mines are scattered throughout the region, 80 of which were closed this year. China, the world's largest coal producer and consumer, saw 4,746 deaths in coal mine accidents last year--an average of 13 deaths per day. The hope is that larger projects will have tighter regulations on mines.

Xinjiang, sometimes referred to as East or Chinese Turkestan, is home to majority of Muslim Turkic groups. Historically, Xinjiang, like its neighbor Tibet, has fought to separate itself from China. Since the fifties, however, a Chinese propoganda movement known as "Go West" has encouraged Chinese people from the East to settle in the region and transform the frontier. Human rights advocates have historically scorned China for is work prisons (Laogai) and involvement of the World Bank in Xinjiang.

In addition to the new mine, he Xinwen Mining Group plans to invest more than $3.8 billion for coal chemical development in the Yili Rive Valley of Xinjiang.

Sources: China Daily, Industrial Info Resources, Times of India, Tibet Environmental Watch, Interfax China