March 14 -- Investment in China's mining sector rose 28.9 percent year on year to 416.8 billion yuan (53.44 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, said sources with the Ministry of Land and Resources on Tuesday.

Last year China's output of raw coal grew eight percent to 2.38 billion tons, crude oil edged up 1.7 percent to 184 million tons, natural gas rose 18.7 percent to 58.55 billion cubic meters, crude steel surged 19.7 percent to 422.66 million tons.

Output of the ten main nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminum, nickel, lead, zinc and tungsten - surged 17.2 percent to 19.17 million tons in 2006.

China had been leading the world in nonferrous metals output for four straight years prior to 2006, according to previous reports.

The country also produced 13.7 million tons of alumina in 2006, up 59.4 percent and 1.24 billion tons of cement, up 15.5 percent.

Proven reserves of oil, natural gas and raw coal increased 944 million tons, 538.1 billion cubic meters and 36.7 billion tons respectively in 2006, said the sources.

By the end of 2005, China had proven reserves of 24.8 billion tons of oil, 4.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and one trillion tons of coal.