From China Daily:
The “recovery rate” for China’s coal resources is only 30 percent, less than half the world’s average, according to the 2007 Energy Blue Paper recently released by the Social Sciences Publishing House.
“To produce one ton of coal in China, we consume five to 20 tons of coal resources. In developed countries, they only consume 1.2 to 1.3 tons,” said Doctor Cui Minxuan, chief editor of the blue paper and a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The nearly six billion cubic meters of coal-bed gas wasted in Shanxi every year represent about 50 percent to the total amount of gas transferred by the government from the west to the east. To complete the picture, 1.2 billion tons of water resources is thrown away each year.
Appalled, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has set a goal of lifting the mineral resource recovery rate by 35 percent by 2010from the 2005 level. If the objective is reached, China could save 250 million tons of coal, 3.25 billion cubic meters of coal-bed gas and seven million tons of oil a year by 2010, said NDRC. [Full Text]
