China National Administration of Coal Geology (CNACG)

China National Administration of Coal Geology (CNACG), established in 1953, is the largest and most powerful multi-specialty comprehensive geological exploration enterprise engaged in the most diverse range of business in China, and it is also responsible for industry administration for coal and chemical resources prospecting. CNACG is a central enterprise under the governance of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

CNACG is mainly engaged in exploration and development of energy minerals, chemical minerals and metal minerals, foundation work, aerial survey and remote sensing, geographic information, building construction, underground pipe gallery, equipment manufacturing, rare earth smelting, tourism service, new energy development, application of geothermal energy in new-type cities and towns, industry funds and PPP project implementation, smart city and smart mine construction, geological disaster assessment and governance and soil restoration and governance, etc.

In more than 60 years, CNACG has made a great contribution to national energy and food security by successively finishing four rounds of national coal resources prediction and two rounds of potential assessment for national chemical mineral resources. Through these efforts, it explored more than twenty kinds of mineral resources like coal, phosphor, sulfur, boron, potassium and iron, provided proven coal resources of more than one trillion tons and identified chemical mineral resources (incl. phosphor, sulfur and potassium) of more than ten billion tons. More than ten thousand pieces of various geological reports were submitted. It discovered more than 100 large or super-large coalfields. It built nearly 100 medium-to-large chemical mines and provided water resource for dozens of mining areas. It also formulated more than 20 pieces of industry standards. More than 100 pieces of scientific achievements won national and provincial awards and 15 people won Li Siguang Award for Geosciences.

In the geographic information industry within China, CNACG ranks the fourth for overall capacity and the first for mapping. It has actively participated in the construction of smart city and smart mine both at home and abroad, and possessed the complete industry chain from data collection, data processing, data analysis and software development to information system study and construction. By now, it has successively completed more than 1000 large-scale mapping and geographic information projects. At abroad, it has cooperated with America, Japan, EU and other countries in the “digital earth” project and carried out remote sensing and space mapping projects with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative such as Mongolia and Indonesia. At home, it participated in the construction of Beijing digital Olympics project and the construction of digital city and smart mine in large and medium cities such as Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Urumqi, Luoyang, Datong and Tongchuan.

In view of clean energy exploration and development, CNACG completed the first round of coalbed methane parameter evaluation in China, revealing the CBM reserves amounted to 35 trillion cubic meters. CNACG carried out geothermal energy projects in deep and shallow formations in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shaanxi, Qinghai and other areas in Southwest China, and CBM and shale exploration and development in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Guizhou. CNACG discovered, for the first time, combustible ice through drilling in Qilian Mountain of Tibet Plateau. Moreover, CNACG made study and development in relation to coal-uranium joint exploration and potassium-uranium joint exploration in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

In view of ecological civilization construction, CNACG has taken active actions in mine environment and soil pollution restoration. For example, it carried out tailings investigation and governance in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, environmental modification of abandoned mines in the Yangtze River Delta area, and geological disaster investigation and governance in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region. CNACG has also made efforts in disposing and controlling soil pollution, underground water pollution and mine soil pollution in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

CNACG has developed a series of unique technologies. It possesses several core technologies including high-precision digital aerial mapping, radar data processing, high-resolution and hyperspectral remote sensing, geospatial information map editing and producing, satellite remote sensing and measuring and mapping. It owns the core technology of geophysical prospecting integrating data collection, and processing and result interpretation, such as 2D and 3D seismic, 3D geological radar, visual electrical method and digital logging. It has quick and precise drilling technology centered on geo-steering, horizontal docking, multi-branch horizontal drilling, heavy-caliber borehole and wire-line coring. Beside that, it establishes 4 laboratories featured with the technical advantages in sedimentary mineral test of coal, phosphor, sulfur, potassium, oil sand, CBM and shale.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, CNACG has set up an informationalized energy and chemical mineral exploration system integrating space, air, land and sea, which is composed of key technologies such as satellite remote sensing, aerial mapping, ground comprehensive prospecting, marine drilling, downhole precise drilling, environmental monitoring and governance and laboratory test. It has actively participated in smart city, underground pipe gallery, PPP projects and infrastructure construction, docking and integration of industrial funds into local economy. It has formed a batch of famous brands including “Aerial Survey and Remote Sensing”, “Changjiang Exploration”, “Huasheng Mining”, and “Huachen”.

During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, CNACG booked coal resources of 24 billion tons, CBM resources of 1.5 billion cubic meters, phosphor, potassium and iron of more than 2 billion tons, and other mineral resources like lead, zinc, fluorite, graphite and cooper gold multi-metals, thus significantly contributing to the development of China’s coal and chemical fertilizer industries.

Looking forward, CNACG will adhere to its overall development strategy and continue to serve national resource and mineral strategies. Driven by reform and innovation, guaranteed by the Party building, CNACG will spare no effect to promote the great-leap-forward development of economy and try to build itself into resource-based enterprise group with core competitiveness in the field of new energy minerals.