Uzbekistan approves coal industry development programme for 2013-2018

Uzbekistan, Tashkent, June 10 / Trend D.Azizov /

In the 2013-2018 Uzbekistan will direct $555.2 million towards the development of the coal industry and also double the production of coal, a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan, released on Monday, said.

According to the decision which approved a programme of modernisation of technical and technological re-equipment of the coal industry in the near five years, the implementation of seven major investment projects and construction of new industry enterprises in the country are provided.

The major projects of the programme relate to the upgrading of Shargunkumir OJSC worth $101.3 million, updating obsolete equipment of the industry's facilities worth 232.9 million dollars, the construction of the Apartak section worth 106.5 million dollars, as well as the project to maintain the Uzbekugol's production capacity worth $24.5 million.

The programme also includes a section for carrying out geological exploration work for coal by the enterprises of the State Committee for Geology and Mineral resources of Uzbekistan

As a result of these works, the coal reserves in the country will grow by 771.3 million tons and resources to 228.6 million tons.

In accordance with the target parameters of the coal production programme, coal production in Uzbekistan will reach 8.1 million tons in 2019 against four million tons expected by the end of 2013 (3,752 million tons of coal were produced in the country in 2012).

The volume of overburden operations in 2019 is expected to grow by 2.9 times, up to 71 million cubic meters against 24.7 million cubic meters that are planned for 2013. In 2012, the volume of overburden operations was 13.9 million cubic meters.

Funding of the programme is planned to be carried out through the fund for technical re-equipment and modernisation of the coal industry, Uzbekugol's own funds, as well as credits from commercial banks.

At present, the explored coal reserves in Uzbekistan are about two billion tons, including 1.9 billion of brown coal and 46.3 million tons of stone coal. Coal is extracted from three fields, the Angren brown coal field and the Shargun and Baysun stone coal field.

The Angren coal field is the largest in Uzbekistan, with explored coal reserves of 1.9 billion tons. The Angren and Apartak sections where production is carried out openly are operating here.

The main consumer of coal enterprises in the country are the thermal power plants of Uzbekenergo SJSC, which operate on solid fuel. More than 85 per cent of total coal consumption in the country fall to them.