Russian pig iron and coking coal producer Koks Group has announced that it has commissioned its Butovskaya coal mine. The construction of the mine took more than five years.
Butovskaya mine's JORC measured and indicated resources are estimated at 111.1 million mt of coal. The mine is expected to be operational for about 40 years. The designed extraction capacity of the mine will reach 1.5 million mt after its second longwall face is commissioned.
Koks expects to extract around 500,000 mt of coal in 2013 at the mine and coal extraction will rise to 850,000 mt next year. The new highly productive asset will also protect the company against raw material price fluctuations and will increase Koks' profitability as a whole.
According to Koks, the investments in the construction of the mine and its infrastructure by the time of the start of operations totaled RUR 8.8 billion ($290 million).