Kazakhstan and coal

Kazakhstan has a substantial coal mining industry. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGA) reported that in 2006 coal mining in Kazakhstan coal sector "was conducted by 33 companies, which included 5 foreign companies."

Coal Reserves
The USGS reports that "the country has registered 49 deposits in its State reserve balance, which contains a total of 33.6 Gt and of which 21.5 Gt is hard coal and 12.1 Gt is brown coal. The reserves are located mainly in the Ekibastuz, the Karaganda, and the Shubarkol deposits and in the Turgai coal basin."

Coal Mining
The USGS reported that "in 2006, Kazakhstan produced 96.3 Mt of coal, which was an 11.5% increase compared with production in 2005. Kazakhstan planned to increase coal production by less than 1% in 2007. Plans for 2007 also called for implementing development projects in the Ekibastuz subbituminous coal basin and closing unprofitable coal mines in the Karaganda basin (Interfax Russia & CIS Metals & Mining Weekly, 2007d). Long-range plans called for Kazakhstan to reduce coal consumption by 45% by 2024 as part of its program to achieve sustainable growth. At the same time, the use of renewable energy was targeted to increase from 0.2% in 2006 to 5% in 2024."

"Long-range plans also called for Kazakhstan to increase annual coal production to 145.6 Mt by 2020 according to the Coal Industry Department at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. Production of metallurgical coal was projected to increase to 24.3 Mt in 2020 from 12.9 Mt in 2006, and production of steam coal, to 121.3 Mt from 83.4 Mt. Achieving the targeted level for 2020 would require an investment of $3.9 billion, of which $2.1 billion would be targeted for metallurgical coal development and $1.8 billion would be targeted for steam coal," the USGA reported.

The USGS lists the major mining areas as being in the Central and north-central parts of the country. The major coal deposits are:
 * the Karaganda Basin from which 50 million tonnes was mined in 2006;
 * the Ekibastuz Basindo from which 95 million tonnes was mined in 2006;
 * the Maykuben Basindo from which 10 million tonnes was mined in 2006; and
 * the Turgay Basin from which 1 million tonnes was mined in 2006.

Coal-fired power stations financed by international public investment institutions
Coal-fired power stations financed by international public investment institutions include:
 * Karaganda power station, Kazakhstan
 * Pavlodar CCL power station, Kazakhstan

Proposed coal plants

 * Balkhash power station

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Global use and production of coal