The Ukrainian steelmaker Zaporizhstal will start from the end of next year to import coking coal from its Bystryanskaya 1-2 mine in Russia's Rostov region.
According to reports, the construction of the Bystryanskaya 1-2 mine, the largest coking coal deposit in the south of Russia with coking coal reserves estimated at 46 million mt, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011, while from 2012 it is expected to start producing at full capacity, i.e., 750,000 mt of coking coal per year, thus covering a third of Zaporizhstal's needs. The mined coal will be transported to the Sholokhovskoe coal enrichment plant located in the same region as the mine, and later shipped to Ukraine.
Zaporizhstal acquired its coking coal assets - the Sholokhovskoe coal enrichment plant and the Bystryanskaya 1-2 coking coal mine - in late 2007.