Development of Elegesta Coal Field begins in Tuva

Development of Elegesta Coal Field begins in Tuva

Some 20,000 tons of coking coal have been produced at the Elegesta Coal Field, in the Republic of Tuva, during a month of the technological development of coal seams. The Elegesta Coal Field is one of the world’s larges deposits of coking coal. The technological development of coal seams created conditions for the installation of an American production complex for the deep working of coal seams, which can produce about one million tons of coal a year, Alexander Brokert, head of the Yenisey Industrial Company (YIC), told Itar-Tass. YIC is a subsidiary of the United Industrial Company (UIC), which won the tender for the right to develop the Elegesta Coal Field.

According to Brokert, a group of American specialists of the producing company – some ten people – are coming to Tuva from the United States on May 11 for installing the equipment at the coal field, whose value is about ten million dollars. After that commercial production of coking coal will be started.

Proved coal reserves of the Elegesta Coal Field are estimated at 900 million tons. It is planned to produce 500,000 to 700,000 tons of coal this year. The number of workers at the opencast colliery will amount to 500. The transportation of coal from Tuva to other regions of Russia will begin this year. According to the estimates of specialists, the development of the Elegesta Coal Field will permit Russia to become the third largest exporter of coking coal in the world. Three million tons of coal will be produced at the Elegesta Coal field in 2010, and within four years it will reach the design capacity of 13.5 million tons.

The Russian government decided to build a 459-kilometres-long railway line connecting Kuragino and Kyzyl for the development of the Elegesta Coal Field. It will permit to transport coal concentrate to countries of the Asia-Pacific Region, including by the Trains-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Railway.

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