23 Nov 2017 14:32

Kuzbass readjusts 2017 coal target to 240 mln tonnes, up 5.5% from last year

KEMEROVO. Nov 23 (Interfax) - The Kemerovo region, home to Russia's coal-rich Kuznetsk coal basin (Kuzbass), is now planning to produce 240 million tonnes of coal in 2017, its governor, Aman Tuleyev, said in his budget address.

This would be 5.5% more than the 227.4 million tonnes the region produced in 2016.

Tuleyev said investment in the coal industry had risen by 4.6 billion rubles this year to 63 billion rubles, and investment in the metallurgical industry had gone up 2 billion rubles to 6 billion rubles.

Deputy Governor Yevgeny Khlebunov said in February that the region planned to mine 230 million tonnes of coal this year, and the regional administration posted an instruction on the region's socioeconomic development forecast on its website in October that said the Kuzbass planned to produce 233 million tonnes of coal.