Rosnedra proposing licensing on declarative basis for coal deposits in Far Eastern Federal District on border with China, near terminals
MOSCOW. Oct 7 (Interfax) - Rosnedra intends to focus on the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District when licensing coal deposits and to expand the declarative principle for coal deposits located on the border with China or close to sea terminals in the Far East, agency head Yevgeny Petrov said on Friday, speaking at the Coal Forum in Kuzbass.
The Coal Deposits Licensing Programme created a list of subsoil areas of coal deposits submitted for use, according to which licensing is provided mainly in the Komi, Kemerovo, Khakassia, the Transbaikal Territory, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Khabarovsk Territory, Amur and Sakhalin Regions, Rosnedra chief said. In the near future, coal industry indicators and development trends will be adjusted and along with them the coal deposit licensing program will be updated with determination of licensing principles for each of the coal producing regions.
"Furthermore, it is necessary to incentivize subsoil use in coal areas with a low degree of geological exploration, and in this regard, it is worth considering extending the "declarative principle" of licensing for coal sites in the Far Eastern Federal District, located in areas bordering China or geographically close to coal shipping terminals and not creating a burden on the infrastructure of railway transportation through the Eastern Polygon," Petrov said.
"Today we are shifting more and more in licensing from Siberia to the Far East in order to diversify companies' capacities and cargo flows. We are working primarily in Sakhalin and Khabarovsk Territory, where there is a need for coal, and these regions are close to the infrastructure. Again, the focus is on those facilities in the Far East that are as close as possible to the port infrastructure," Petrov said.
Russia is a major player on the global coal market, the country's commercial reserves (which can be involved in development) amount to 274 billion tonnes. At the same time, only 17% (47 billion tonnes) are in the allocated subsoil fund. The provision of the Russian coal industry with reserves of the distributed fund of subsurface resources is on average 100 years. Operating mines are provided with commercial coal reserves for 53 years, open-pit mines - for 67 years.