Sustainable coal mine and coal land development in China

Because land is a non-renewable resource, land reclamation in mining regions has attracted significant research attention. This study divided China's 24 provinces into major and non-major coal-producing regions and employed a dynamic two-stage Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) recycling model to evaluate provincial mining production and mining land recovery stage efficiencies, from which the following was found: 1. the mining production efficiencies in the major coal-producing regions were higher than in the non-major coal-producing regions; 2. the mining land damage efficiencies in the major coal-producing regions were higher than in the non-major coal-producing regions; 3. the mining land recovery efficiencies in the major coal-producing regions were lower than in the non-major coal-producing regions; and 4. the mining land recovery efficiencies were better than the mining land damage efficiencies. Fourteen provinces; six major coal-producing regions and eight non-major coal-producing regions; had mining land recovery efficiencies of 1. This study suggested that the central government should assist the mining industry to upgrade its human resources to improve mining management and sustainability efficiencies.