TAIYUAN - Over the past few years, at least 58 mine bosses in Datong of north China's Shanxi province have abandoned their profitable mining businesses and channeled their money into agriculture and food processing sectors.

"I have successfully transformed myself from a mine boss into an agricultural entrepreneur," said Ren Fu, chairman of a beverage factory in Yanggao County of Datong.

Datong, the northernmost city in Shanxi province, is known as "the city of coal" in China due to its abundant coal reserves.

Dotted with private mines which lack effective supervision and management, Datong was one of China's most polluted cities and known for its frequent coal mining accidents.

But since 2008, when Shanxi province was chosen as China's first pilot region for coal resources integration project, many of the province's coal-mining companies have been merged and reorganized.

The project aims to reduce the number of small coal mines and thus decrease the number of coal mine fatalities. A total of 200 local coal mines with an annual production capacity below 300,000 tons in Datong have been shut down since the project kicked off.

By the end of last year there were 1,953 coal mines and 130 mining enterprises in Shanxi, down from 4,278, and 2,200 respectively before the integration project started.

Like Ren, other mine bosses have recently pulled out of the mining industry and redirected their money and vision into the agriculture and food processing sectors.

"They have become the mainstay of the local agricultural sector," said Liu Jian, deputy director with the local commission of rural affairs.

"At present, about 90 percent of the 135 leading agricultural enterprises in Datong have coal mining-related backgrounds," Liu added.