A potential analysis of the availability of coal resources in China

Abstract：On the basis of the third time prognostic data of China's coal reserves and through a systematic analysis of the distribution, buried depth and classification of discovered coal reserves and prognostic coal reserves, this paper points out that there exist 68.489 billion tons of economic recoverable coal reserves, 228.297 billion tons of unoccupied discovered coal reserves and 4552.104 billion tons of prognostic coal reserves. These data show great potential of coal resources in China. Nevertheless, the reliable coal resources that are buried less than 1000 m and can be used in the near future are only 916.91 billion tons. Therefore we have to re-understand the advantages of coal resources in China scientifically and objectively and make China's national energy policy reasonable so as to ensure the security of China's coal energy.