China’s biggest coal producer, state owned Shenhua Group plans to invest 37.5 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) by the year 2011 to build coal mining facilities in the Northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Xinjiang subsidiary of the Shenhua Group will build new mines with an annual capacity of 16 million tons.

It will also develop a 3.2 million ton per annum coal liquefaction project, auxiliary generation facilities, as well as railways to transport coal from the region, according to a statement from the National Development and Reform Commission. "These projects are scheduled to come on stream by the year 2011," the NDRC statement said.