Removing the top-soil layer at the Haerwusu open-cast coal mine.

Haerwusu Coal Mine in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China's largest open-cast coal mine, recently started production.

Covering an area of 67 square kilometers, Haerwusu mine lies in the middle of the Zhungeer Coalfield. Its coal reserves total about 1.73 billion tons. At the moment it is the open-cast coal mine with the largest production capacity in China. Its annual output is estimated to be 20 million tons of crude coal and it is scheduled to operate for near 80 years. Work on the mine started in May 2006 and the total investment topped 7 billion yuan.