YANGON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has discovered a new large coal mine in northern part of the country's Shan state and mining of the mineral will start with a local private company soon, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday.

    The newly-found coal mine in Mongma area has the highest deposit of quality coal and it is estimated to yield thousands of tons of the mineral annually to help meet a domestic demand for at least 30 years, the report said.

    The exploitation of the coal mine by the AAA Company will begin at the end of this year, it added.

    There are about 10 coal mines in the northeastern state in operation, according to the report.

    Statistics showed that with a total of 82 coal mining blocks in the whole country, Myanmar produced 282,655 tons of coal in the fiscal year 2007-08 which ended in March, up 19.5 percent from 2006-07.