A major 3.7 billion yuan ($523 million) coal mine in Ordos in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region got the green light by the National Development and Reform Commission on Oct 15, local officials said.

The mine, located in Ordos's Tongsheng district, will have annual production capacity of about 5 million tons.

Officials said that coal preparation plant of the same scale would also be built there. No estimate was provided on what the plant would cost.

The construction of the mine expected to promote the construction of Shendong as a large-scale coal base, effectively guarantying the stable supply of energy, optimizing the coal industry's structure there and solving the problems of production continuity and personnel transfer and resettlement in some resource-exhausted coal mines.