Xilingol League in northern China’s Inner Mongolia produced a total 59.14 million tonnes of coal over January-August this year, down 23.3% on year, showed data from the Xilingol Coal Industry Administration on September 17.<br /> In August, coal output of Xilingol fell 43.9% on year and down 25.44% on month to 4.66 million tonnes, said the administration.<br /> Over January-August, total output value of coal industry in Xilingol fell 20.9% year on year to 8.47 billion yuan ($1.38 billion), with the value in August at 0.71 billion yuan, down 32.2% from the year prior.<br /> The average coal price rose 3.1% on year to 143.3 yuan/t in this region over January-August, with the August price averaging 151.5 yuan/t, up 21% from a year ago.<br /> Coal-rich Xilingol has proved coal reserves of 144.8 billion tonnes, most of which are mid-ash, low-sulphur and low-phosphorus lignites with calorific value at around 3,500 kcal/kg.<br /> Over 95% of the current coal mines in this region are open-pit mines with low exploitation cost.<br /> Xilingol planned to develop 26 mining areas, with combined annual capacity at 696.4 million tonnes, of which 416.5 million tonnes from 15 mining areas has been approved by the government.<br /> <p> At present, total capacity of mines that are in operation or under construction in Xilingol stood at 197.4 million tonnes per annum. The largest open-pit coal mine under construction has the annual capacity of 30 million tonnes. </p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="/upfiles/news/image/20150918/20150918165112_0214.jpg" alt="" /> </p>