North China's Shanxi Province will spend 30 billion yuan (4.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the next three years to restore areas damaged by mining.

The province has about 62,000 square kilometers of coal-bearing land, over 40 percent of its total land area, but over-exploitation has left about 5,000 square km severely undermined, about 3,000 square km of which has a high risk of subsidence, threatening the lives of about 2.3 million people. These high-risk areas are expanding by more than 80 square km each year.

The provincial department of land and resources plans to treat 59 mines and restore 40 other areas damaged by mining.

Earlier this year, the provincial government said it would no longer approve new mines and would cut coal capacity by over 100 million tonnes before 2020. Endi

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