Northwest China's Qinghai province initiated a three-year plan to repair the ecosystem in part of Qilian Mountains, which stand on the border of Qinghai and Gansu provinces, that was recently reported to be devastated by illegal mining.

Since 2006, the local Xingqing company has excessively mined the coal field, south of the Qilian Mountains, by more than 25 million metric tons, under the guise of ecological restoration, creating around 15 billion yuan ($2.15 billion) of profit.

Two top officials of Haixi prefecture have been removed from their posts for dereliction of supervision duty on illicit mining in the Muli coal mine. Another three officials from local supervision departments in Haixi have also been removed from office and put under investigation.

On Monday, the provincial government announced the action plan, which will be implemented in the next three years in Muli and the neighboring regions suffering environmental destruction.

The plan requires local departments to shut down all mines and draft repair plans for each before the end of this year. Between 2021 and 2023, a comprehensive program will be further conducted to improve the local environment under the plan.

By 2023, those regions covered by the plan will become a high plateau ecological park, according to the provincial government.

As of Monday midnight, 485 construction equipments and 965 construction workers have arrived at the Muli coal mine, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.