Yining, XINJIANG - A northwest county in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions plans to dramatically increase its gold production in the next four years.

Yining, located in Xinjiang's Yili Kazakh autonomous region, is upgrading the technology at the Axi Gold Mine, which entered into production in 1995 and now produces 1.3 tons of gold per year, said Zhang Weisheng, the county's Party chief.

Zhang said efforts are also being made to speed up the gold project by Lingbao Gold Company Ltd, one of China's big five gold producers, and another project by Jinchuan Mining that has an investment of 580 million yuan ($90 million) in Yining.

The county expects to produce 10 tons of gold per year by the end of 2015, Zhang said.

Yining has a population of 418,000, with 27 ethnic groups accounting for 82.9 percent and the rest Han people.