Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Kyrgyzstan, one of five Central Asian countries, plans to completely turn down the Kazakh coal in the future.

Kyrgyz Energy and Industry Minister Osmonbek Artykbayev said at the meeting with donors that Kyrgyzstan needs to master own coal reserves, Kyrgyz Telegraph Agency reported.

Kyrgyzstan has significant resources of coal and lignite and intends to intensify coal production in the country, he said.

Currently, Kyrgyzstan pursues a course of intensive exploration of own coal mines. It produced 1.184 million tons of coal in 2012 and plans to bring these figures up to 3 million tons in three years, Artykbayev said.

According to him, the proved coal reserves of Kyrgyzstan amount to about 1.3 billion tons, while probable reserves range from 4 to 6 billion. Therefore, the potential of heat generation from own coal is very high. The most important thing is to attract investments in this sector, he said.

"We plan to sell our coal to China and Central Asian countries in the future," he said.

Earlier official of Kyrgyz Economy Ministry Almaz Alimbekov said that Kyrgyzstan with 1.3 billion tons of coal reserves would become a giant exporter of coal to China, which is the main consumer of this mineral.

Experts believe that Kyrgyzstan is aiming to become a major coking coal supplier to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China.

The majority of coal reserves of the country remain unexploited. According to experts, the development of these coal fields will be a significant boost to the Kyrgyz economy.