Uzbekistan aims to increase coal production
By Kamila Aliyeva
Uzbekistan plans to increase coal production up to 11.1 million tons by 2021 to meet the needs of the population and industry.
The Uzbek Ministry of Economy announced the approval of the Program for the further development and modernization of the coal Industry for 2017-2021.
Given that in 2017, the volume of coal mining amounted to 4.1 million tons, an increase of more than double is planned.
The development program includes both new construction and modernization of the existing facilities of the industry.
Six investment projects worth $690.5 million will be realized, including the modernization of Shargunkumir JSC worth $105.5 million, the construction of the Angren mine – $165 million and Nishbash mine – $175.2 million will be implemented as part of the project.
When calculating the forecasted future demand, the development of economic sectors, the needs of the social sphere and the population of the republic in coal fuel, given the demographic growth, were taken into account.
Uzbekistan’s explored reserves amount to 1.853 million tons of brown coal and 47 million tons of black coal. Total coal resources make over 5.7 billion tons.
Two coal fields are presently being developed - the Angren brown coal field in the Tashkent region and the Shargun anthracite deposit in the Surkhandarya region. Some bituminous coal is produced from the Baysun field, also in the southern region of Surkhandarya.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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