The country produced 3.75 billion tons of raw coal last year, up 4.2 percent year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Southwest China's Guizhou Province has vowed to shut down small coal mines with an annual production of less than 300,000 tonnes in 2020, in an effort to phase out outdated mining capacity, local authorities said.

The province will also upgrade technology in other coal mines, as it pushes to upgrade the entire industry this year, authorities said at a local emergency management work meeting.

• [Editor:kangmingfei]