China Shenhua not eyeing new foreign coal mines-media

BEIJING, June 12 (Reuters) - China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd (601088.SS)(1088.HK), the top Chinese coal miner, will not consider buying any major overseas mines before it starts operating the Watermark coal project in Australia, a newspaper reported on Friday.

"We will not go for other projects if we have not succeeded in this one, the first step of our overseas efforts," Shenhua board secretary Huang Qing was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Securities News. "Shenhua will take an active and cautious approach (toward overseas buying)."

He said Shenhua was conducting environmental reviews and exploration on the Watermark project after gaining a license last year.

Shenhua Watermark Coal Pty Ltd paid A$299.9 million ($243.6 million) for a coal exploration licence in Australia in 2008.

Huang said the project had undergone all regulatory procedures in Australia and would not meet any policy restrictions or uncertainties.

He said Shenhua would focus on opportunities in Australia, Indonesia and Mongolia that could be potential suppliers to coal users on China's southeast coast.

He added that the company was also interested in coking coal resources in Mongolia.

He downplayed concerns over the impact of rising coal imports on the domestic market, saying the majority of coal was still supplied by domestic producers.

China's major power companies stepped up coal imports this year as they failed to reach price agreements with domestic coal miners for annual supply contracts.

Coal imports in April soared to a record high of 9.16 million tonnes, up 3.4 million tonnes from a month earlier and far above market expectations. Imports in the first four months surged 56 percent to 22.77 million tonnes, official data had showed.

China burnt about 2.7 billion tonnes of coal last year, Huang said.

(Reporting by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu,Editing by Chris Lewis)