A Canadian coal-mining company is seeking investors, including from China, to jointly exploit the world largest coking coal field in British Columbia, Canada.

Canadian Dehua International Mines Group (CDI), an integrated Canadian coal and metal investment and exploration company, will put its Wapiti River coking coal field on table to lure partners worldwide.

The Wapiti River coal field covers 149.36 sqm, with an estimate reserve of 7 billion tons coking coal with low sulfur and high calorific power.

CDI was established in 2004 by Liu Naishun, a Chinese-Canadian. CDI has been active in developing resources from coking coal, copper, gold and iron ore in Canada.

For developing such and other resources, CDI has been partnering with Chinese energy giants such as Shandong Energy Group Co., Ltd, Kailuan Group, Shougang Group and Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd.

Liu said in an e-mail interview that he believed the project would be 'a money spinner' after its operation in the near future.

The Wapiti River project expects the injection of an estimated $1.18 billion in investment to start the infrastructure construction including a 47-kilometer railway and hiring of about 700 employees including managers and miners.

The annual production is projected to reach 10 million tons and mainly export to Asia-Pacific countries such as China, Japan, the ROK and India.

The global coal mining industry is in a downturn and coal price has slumped dramatically, however, Liu said as the vital ingredient of steel making, coking coal is always a profitable business, more importantly, a strategic resource for the economic development.

"Coking coal is an irreplaceable as long as we still make steel," said Liu. "The fast-developing countries such as China and India will more heavily rely on importing coking coals in the future."

He added that the investment in the Wapiti River project would recover the cost in five years.

Coking coal accounts for 10 percent of the total global coal reserve, of which 50 percent is in Asia and 25 percent in the North America.

Born in the northwest China's Shanxi province, which boasts the richest coal reserve in China, Liu emigrated to Canada in 2003. It was reported that he was successful in coal business in China and saw a promising future of the rich coal resources in Canada.

China, the largest producer and consumer of coking coal, faces an exhausted domestic reserve of high-quality coking coals.

"The steel-making industry in China mainly rely on importing coking coals from abroad especially Australia. It is important to sustain a stable and long-term supply by exploring more coking coal mines in different ways," said Li Xinchuang, director of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.

According to the statistics from the National General Administration of China Customs, China imported 20.94 million tons coking coals from Australia between January and September in 2014, taking up 47.2 percent of China's total import during the period.

China re-imposed tariffs on imported coals last October, seen as a policy to save the falling domestic coal industry but posed hardship on foreign companies.

However, experts said because the growing need of coking coal in China, the imported coking coals especially the high-quality products will be welcomed in a long-run.

"Canada has a good investment environment with complete laws to protect the interest of foreign investments," said Yuan Zhanling, former economic and commercial counselor of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Vancouver.

wangru@chinadaily.com.cn