The Russian domestic market will be the main sale market for coking coal to be mined at the Elga deposit, according to Igor Khafizov, general director of Mechel Mining, the mining division of Russian mining and steel producing company Mechel.
Since the Russian domestic market is experiencing a shortage of the coking coal grades held at the Elga deposit, Mechel will give priority to this market in its supplies from the deposit in question. Once coal mining at the deposit is developed further and reaches the level of five million mt per year, Mechel will consider other possible sale markets, such as Japan, South Korea, India and maybe China.
In 2007 Mechel won a license for the development of the Elga deposit, which has 2.2 billion metric tons of coal reserves.