The Russian coal mining company Belon Group (Belon) has announced that during the first nine months of 2007 the company invested about Ruble 4.7 billion ($119 million) in the development of its Kuzbass-located facilities.
During the period in question, Belon directed its major investment towards the development of its new Listvyazhnaya company, which consists of Kostpomobskaya mine, Novobachatskiy open-pit mine and the Inya railway station.
In particular, Belon invested about Ruble 2.06 billion ($84.1 million) in the construction of the Listvyazhnaya enrichment plant, which was completed in August 2007.
Meanwhile, the construction works at Kostpomobskaya mine, which mines coking coal, are still under way. The mine is expected to commission production in the first half of 2008. The mine is expected to achieve its designed production capacity of two million metric tons in 2009.
Belon has also directed a large amount of investment towards the construction of the Novobachatskiy open-pit mine.
In addition, Belon has also invested in the modernization of equipment at its existing production capacities. Thus, in the framework of the program, new equipment was installed at Novaya-2 mine, Listvyazhnaya mine, Chertinskaya-Koksovaya mine and Belovskaya mine.
This massive investment program is realized in line with Belon's strategic development program, which aims at increasing the company's coal production to 13-14 million a year by 2012.