Russian pig iron and coking coal producer KOKS Group has announced that it is continuing negotiations to sell some of its Kemerovo-based assets, including the Vladimirskaya and Romanovskaya-1 coal mines, and a license to develop the Biryulinskaya mine.
According to KOKS, mining operations at the Vladimirskaya mine are currently executed at the Vladimirovskiy seam and at the newly developed Lutuginsky seam which will secure stable coal supplies until 2015 when it is planned to develop the Vladimirskaya-2 mining field, a part of the Vladimirskaya mine.
The decision to sell the mines was made due to KOKS' intention to focus on its largest coal projects, the second operating line at Butovskaya mine put into operation in May 2013, and construction of the Tikhova mine. Having these production capacities operating together with the Uchastok Koksviy open pit, the company will become nearly 100 percent self-sufficient in coal by 2017. Growing extraction volumes at the Butovskaya mine, Uchastok Koksoviy and coal from third parties will supply the company's current needs in coking coal.