(Photos: Xinhua)

Ruqigou coalfield in northwest China's Ningxia was blasted with 5,400 tonnes of dynamite on Thursday as mining operators began to mine high-quality, but low-polluting, Taixi coal, known as "black gold".

The blast, the largest such operation to be carried out in China for more than a decade, will enable the opencast mining of about 14 million tonnes of Taixi coal.

Taixi coal is reputed for its high carbon content and burns with a clean flame. Only Hongji coal of Vietnam can compare favorably to it.

Experts at the blast site said the dynamite used was equivalent to half the power of a nuclear bomb. It was enough to reduce a 270-meter-high hill in the coal field by 40 meters.

About 12,000 people in the surrounding area were evacuated before the operation.

More than 100 sites were set up at the mine to monitor the dust and poisonous gas emitted from the blast, according to Zheng Bingxu, general manger of Guangdong Hundey Blasting Engineering Co., Ltd.

The proven reserve of Taixi coal in China stands at 220 million tonnes, paling in comparison with the country's total coal deposits of one trillion tonnes.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)