Mechel, one of the leading Russian mining and steel groups, has announced that in summer this year it intends to commission an exploratory operational mine site at its Elga coking coal deposit, with the first coal to be mined as early as November.
Accordingly, by April 2010 Mechel expects to complete the deliveries of all necessary equipment and materials to start the construction of the open pit mine and mining operations. At the beginning of February, two special heavy machinery rail convoys with equipment for the development of the Elga deposit left the Upper Ulak railway station and have already reached their destination, i.e., the site of the new open pit mine construction. Five equipment and machinery convoys in total are due to arrive at the site. Over ninety items of special-purpose machinery and large-scale equipment will be supplied for the development of the deposit.
"Development of the Elga coal deposit is known to be a complex and multifaceted project. Construction progress is affected by both weather and geographical conditions. Still, we have everything to successfully implement this project. Our work is clearly in line with our plans declared before, and we are sure that we will manage to commence coal mining at the Elga deposit as early as autumn," Mechel senior vice president Vladimir Polin stated.
Mechel plans in 2010 to mine up to 200,000 mt of coal, while in 2011 it expects to increase this to one million mt, considering the growing demand for high quality coking coal both within and outside Russia.
"The timing of further Elga coal deposit development will depend on market conditions; however, our main goal is still to reach 27-30 million mt of coal production at the deposit. Thus, summing up the production volumes of all Mechel's coking coal production assets, the company will become one of the world's top three largest producers and suppliers of coking coal concentrates," Mr. Polin said.