State-backed medium-sized coal miner Fengfeng Group is to invest five billion yuan in its third coking coal and coal-to-chemical project in its home province of Hebei.
The Handan-based company recently signed an agreement on the Ci county project, which will have an annual capacity of two million tonnes of coking coal, 700,000 tonnes of methanol and 300,000 tonnes of coal tar oil, according to a China Enterprise News report posted on Fengfeng's website.
Coking coal is used in steel smelting, while methanol is used as a fuel and an industrial chemical.
The project will be enhanced with additional capacity of 500,000 tonnes of methanol from gasified coal and a 37 megawatt (MW) waste heat-to-power facility.
Construction of the project, which is expected to generate a pre-tax profit of 1.5 billion yuan, is scheduled to start in May, the report said.
Fengfeng Group officials were unavailable for comment.