EDB to invest over €196M in Kazakhstan's Bogatyr Komir project
The document was executed by Andrey Beliyaninov, Chairman of the Management Board, from the EDB, and Murat Abdygulov, General Director, and Nikolay Korsakov, First Deputy General Director and CFO, from Bogatyr Komir, Kazinform has learnt from the bank's press service.
The EDB will extend a loan facility of EUR 196.6 million for eleven years.
The loan will be used to finance an investment project to modernise production at the Bogatyr mine by introducing continuous mining technology. This is expected to raise output to 50 million tonnes, improve the quality of end products, cut mining costs, and reduce adverse environmental impacts. A part of end products will be exported to Russia.
"The project supports the development of the country's power sector," Andrey Beliyaninov, Chairman of the Management Board at the EDB, commented. "It is also important to the EDB that it has a significant integration effect. In particular, it will help to enhance the efficiency of coal mining, maintain output for a longer period of time, and promote trade between Russia and Kazakhstan."
The EDB's new loan agreement with Bogatyr Komir, one of Kazakhstan's largest coal miners and the main employer in Pavlodar Region for over 6,000 people, is the third one, in addition to the loan facilities opened in December 2011 and November 2013. Then, the Bank extended some US $50 million and US $25 million for seven years, respectively.
The Bank's experts estimate that the project will help to increase production by arranging preparatory construction work to the tune of US $60.7 million. Over the first ten years from its start, the project is expected to raise coal output by an average of US $75 million a year and increase mutual trade between the EDB countries as a result of coal exports by US $27 million a year on average. It will also help to minimise adverse environmental impacts, as extracted coal will be stored within the mines.
Bogatyr Komir is Kazakhstan's largest coal producer, accounting for approximately 60% and 40% of all coal produced in the Ekibastuz basin and Kazakhstan respectively. Over 1 billion tonnes of coal have been extracted to date. The company's core business is open-pit coal mining from the Bogatyr mine in the Ekibastuz basin.
Photo: bogatyr.kz