Rebirth of Asia's once largest open-pit mine

An excavator on display at the Haizhou Coal Mine in Fuxin, Liaoning province. YI RUNQIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY

The glory days are gone for the once-bustling Haizhou coal mine that used to be the largest of its kind in Asia located in the northeastern Chinese city of Fuxin.

Nowadays, all that is left is a giant mine pit that is nearly 4 km long, 2 km wide and over 300 meters deep.

Over the past decade or so after the mine was closed, problems have continued to plague Fuxin as the resource-depleted city urgently seeks to restructure.

The sheer size of the pit makes it easy to imagine it being the first and largest open-pit mechanized mine after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Past glory

On January 1, 1951, the construction of the mine began and six months later, the ambitious project had been put into operation with a designated annual output of 3 million tons, quite a landmark project after China began to beef up its industrial sector.

"Scenes back then were spectacular," said Min Shibiao, a previous chief truck driver at the mine.

"During the peak days, more than 20 electric picks were working in the pit at the same time, along with over 7,000 workers busy on the front-lines," Min said.

In 1988, Min Shibiao, a then fresh graduate from a coal mine technical school in Fuxin, was assigned to work at the Haizhou coal mine.

"I was too thrilled to fall asleep the day I received the news," said Min. "It was a great honor for people to work for the mine."

As China pushes ahead with its ambitious economic plan, the Haizhou mine had made a substantial contribution. During its mining history of more than half a century, it has produced 244 million tones of coal and paid 3.345 billion yuan in profits and taxes.

On May 31, 2005, the coal mine with a total area equivalent to the size of 38 Palace Museums, was officially closed, followed by over a decade-long treatment for geological hazards.