The projects will involve a total investment of 10.02 billion yuan ($1.45 billion).

The world's biggest coal consumer has approved 25 projects with combined annual capacity of 114.1 million tonnes since the beginning of 2019, despite its pledge to cap carbon emission and to boost consumption of renewable power.

It had coal mining capacity totalling 3.53 billion tonnes per annum by the end of 2018, according to the NEA. That compares to 3.34 billion tonnes at the end of 2017.

Below is the breakdown table of projects approved by the state planner this year. Capacity of the projects is recorded in million tonnes if no clarification.