Xinhua reported that a huge coalfield with 23 billion tonnes in reserve has been discovered in northwest China"s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The coalfield, about 800 meters underground, stretches an area of more than 300 square kilometers in Shanshan County in the arid Turpan Basin.

The coal reserve, rich in low sulfur steam coal, is close to the Lan-Xin Railway, the only railway connecting Xinjiang with the inland cities. It is also 800 kilometers closer to China"s inland than Xinjiang"s largest Zhundong coalfield, thus able to cut transportation costs by CNY 40 per tonne.

Xinjiang, with estimated coal reserves of 1.82 trillion tonnes to 2.19 trillion tonnes, accounts for 40.5% of China"s total coal reserves. With an annual production of 50 million tonnes, Xinjiang is the country"s second largest coal producer after Shanxi Province in northern China.