Lianshao Mining Bureau was a large state-owned enterprise in China that mainly produced coal. It was headquartered in Loudi City, Hunan Province, and its mining areas are distributed in Loudi, Xiangtan, and Shaoyang. At its peak time, the population of the mining area reached 160,000, with nearly 50,000 employees. The normal annual coal output was about 2.7 million tons, and the highest annual output in history reached 3.3 million tons.[1] In 2006 it became part of the Hunan Coal Group.
Lianshao Mining Bureau had jurisdiction over the following units:[2]
Lianshao Mining Bureau was founded in May 1959. From a few pairs of small mining wells, where coal workers carried coal on shoulder poles, it developed into a large national enterprise with a complete range of survey, design, production, construction, and machinery manufacturing.[4]
In 2001, the coal mines of Chaoyang, Doulishan, Qiaotouhe and Lumaojiang went bankrupt and were transferred to local governments. The rest of the Bureau was built into the wholly state-owned Lianshao Mining Group Co., Ltd. directly under the Ministry of the Coal Industry of the Chinese central government.[4]
In 2006, the Hunan Provincial Government integrated Lianshao Mining Group Co., Ltd., Zixing Mining Group Co., Ltd., Baisha Coal and Electricity Group Co., Ltd., Changsha Mining Group Co., Ltd., Xiangtan Mining Group Co., Ltd. and Chenxi Coal Mine altogether six coal mining enterprises and formed the Hunan Provincial Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. (shortly as "Xiangmei Group"). The three companies of Niumasi, Jinzhushan and Hongshandian under the jurisdiction of the former Lianshao Mining Bureau were placed under the direct management of the new group. And the other departments were reorganized into the Lianshao Mining Area Safety Production Administration Bureau and Lianshao Industrial Company.[5]