Enormous coal brands in China endanger rescue teams, destroy raw material resources, and cause environmental pollution. The German government and the RAG want to help China. (Extract taken from "Steinkohle 8/2000.") One billion tons of hard coal are mined in China each year. This accounts for one third of the total world production. The country is gifted with immense amounts of this raw material. However, a large portion of it can never be used for the energy supply of the country's inhabitants. Valuable raw material is destroyed by the embers and heat of hundreds of fires.

In the summer of 2000 a team of RAG experts, under the leadership of Dr. Bodo Goerlich, embarked upon a 20 day mission to China. The team consisted of Mr. Hubert Hering of the German central mine rescue, geologist Dr. Fritz Bandelow, the head of the mining test track in Dortmund (Germany), Dr. Uli Barth, and fire protection expert Dieter Dortmann of the German coal and steel technology company. The aim of the mission was the collection of information as a base for better research and optimized fire-fighting.

The team examined several places in the Xinjiang region, which is in the northwest of China, that have suffered from fires. Furthermore, they examined coal mines in Mongolia.

In the province of Xinjiang alone there are currently 35 fires, which destroy storage places. The fires extend over nearly 100 square meters and emit different kinds of gases, e.g. toxic carbon monoxide, and create a greenhouse effect that causes carbon dioxide. Until now, coal stores of about three billion tons have been destroyed. In comparison, a German hard coal pit with an annual mining volume of three million tons would have to work for 1,000 years to get the same mining volume.

In the name of the whole team of experts, Dr. Goerlich would like to thank GfG Gesellschaft für Gerätebau mbH, Dortmund, which supplied the team with several MICRO IIIs.