According to a Greenpeace investigation, Kingho Group, chaired by billionaire Mr Huo Qinghua who ranked No.138 on Forbes China rich list, is operating a gigantic illegal coal mine on the fragile Qinghai-Tibet plateau that could seriously endanger the country’s largest rivers.
Greenpeace said that the open-pit Muli coalfield, which covers an area 14 times larger than the city of London at an altitude of over 4,000 m, has cut off alpine meadows at the center of the plateau that served as a channel of feeding rainfall and melt waters from the glacier on Qinghai Mountains to the Yellow River.
The nonprofit said that “The coal development violates a number of water protection laws and local nature reserve regulations.”
The Greenpeace revelation comes as China is trying to wean itself of heavy coal use that led to choking grey smog frequently blanketing the skylines of Beijing and cities throughout northern China.
Mr Zheng Xinye, an energy economist at Renmin University, says China is unlikely to slash coal use below 60% of the country’s energy from the current 70% in the next decade.
