Kazakhstan to boost coal output to 108M tons in 2015
"Given that 74% of Kazakhstan's power is produced from coal, we need to boost coal production to meet the increasing inner demand," Mr. Sovet Dambarbayev, chief of the coal industry development department of the ministry said, addressing the international congress Astana Mining & Metallurgy in the Kazakh capital on Thursday. He elaborated that Kazakhstan had produced roughly 107 million tons of coal in 2014 and exported 30.4 million tons. "Kazakhstan is currently seventh in the world in terms of coal reserves. This means that there is enough coal to last us around 300 years at current rates of production," Mr. Dambarbayev noted. In his words, most of Kazakhstan's coal reserves are concentrated in 400 coal fields across the country. Kazakhstan's balance reserves amount to 33.6 billion tons, equaling 3.6% of the world's total.