TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, November 28. Uzbekistan has extracted 5.1 million tons of coal from January through October 2023, Trend reports.
As per Uzbekistan’s State Statistics Committee, the recorded number reflects a 16.8-percent, or 858,480 tons, increase compared to the same period last year, when Uzbekistan extracted 4.2 million tons of coal.
In October 2023 alone, large enterprises in Uzbekistan extracted 657,200 tons of coal, which comprises 12.8 percent of the total volume produced from the beginning of 2023.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Uzbekistan plans to start operating a new coal mine with 900,000 tons of reserves at the Shargun deposit in its Surkhandarya region.
The region's extraction operations total 541,000 tons as of today. Uzbekistan intends to enhance coal extraction in the region by 2 million tons in reaction to this discovery.
Moreover, the country plans to increase the overall coal production to 6.5 million tons by the end of 2023, which is 22.6 percent more than the volume extracted in 2022.