Yakutia and Taimyr to become new major coal producers in Russia
© RIA Novosti. Eugene Odinokov

Yakutia and Taimyr to become new major coal producers in Russia

Russia plans to move the bulk of coal production from its western areas to the east and start developing coal deposits in Yakutia and Taimyr.

“We plan to move the bulk of coal production to the east of the country and simultaneously tap the potential of Russia’s leading Kuzbass, Gorlovsky and Kansko-Achinsky coal fields as much and as effectively as possible,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in his comments for the Energy Policy journal. “There are also plans to develop new deposits of coking coal in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and of hard coal and coking coal on the Taimyr Peninsula in Russia’s Arctic zone.”

Alexander Novak added that Russia also remained committed to switching settlements in coal trade to national currencies. “Payment mechanisms like this have already been provided for coal export to China, India and other countries.”

In his words, the Government is working on a program to fund purchases of Russian equipment for the coal industry at a reduced rate of 3% to 5% per annum for a term of five years.

“Also, we need to find a solution before long to a difficult logistics task, that is ensuring the supply from abroad of equipment, the analogs of which are not manufactured in Russia and the production of which cannot be put in place in the near future,” he said.