Investment in China's mining sector rose 28.9 percent year on year to 416.8
billion yuan (53.44 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, said sources with the
Ministry of Land and Resources on Tuesday.
Last year China's output of
raw coal grew eight percent to 2.38 billion tons, crude oil edged up 1.7 percent
to 184 million tons, natural gas rose 18.7 percent to 58.55 billion cubic
meters, crude steel surged 19.7 percent to 422.66 million tons.
Output
of the ten main nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminum, nickel, lead,
zinc and tungsten - surged 17.2 percent to 19.17 million tons in 2006.
China had been leading the world in nonferrous metals output for four
straight years prior to 2006, according to previous reports.
The country
also produced 13.7 million tons of alumina in 2006, up 59.4 percent and 1.24
billion tons of cement, up 15.5 percent.
Proven reserves of oil, natural
gas and raw coal increased 944 million tons, 538.1 billion cubic meters and 36.7
billion tons respectively in 2006, said the sources.
By the end of 2005,
China had proven reserves of 24.8 billion tons of oil, 4.4 trillion cubic meters
of natural gas and one trillion tons of coal.
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