Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Coal Country Notes

The only data on coal resources that the Russian WEC Member Committee was able to provide for the present Survey of Energy Resources is based on information released by the Ministry of Natural Resources in May 2006: 'discovered' reserves of 194 billion tonnes, which are equated with the proved amount in place of all ranks of  coal, and 'balance' reserves of more than 200 billion tonnes, which are taken to correspond with the additional amount in place. As the WEC Member Committee has been unable to obtain any more coal resource data, for reasons of confidentiality, the levels adopted for proved recoverable reserves in the present instance are unchanged from those given for end-1996 in the 1998 Survey of Energy Resources.

The proved amount of coal in place reported for end-1996 comprised 75.8 billion tonnes of bituminous coal, based on a maximum deposit depth of 1 200 m and a minimum seam thickness of 0.6-0.7 m; 113.3 billion tonnes of sub-bituminous grades (at depths of up to 600 m and minimum thickness 1.0-2.0 m); and 11.5 billion tonnes of lignite (at 300 m and 1.5-2.0 m, respectively).

Proved recoverable reserves were reported as just over 49 billion tonnes of bituminous coal, of which 23% was considered to be surface-mineable and 55% was suitable for coking. Of the 97.5 billion tonnes of proved recoverable reserves of sub-bituminous coal, 74% was suitable for surface mining, while all of the 10.5 billion tonnes of recoverable lignite reserves fell into this category. Overall, about 94 billion tonnes of Russia's proved reserves were deemed to be recoverable by opencast or strip mining.

Russian coal reserves are widely dispersed and occur in a number of major basins. These range from the Moscow Basin in the far west to the eastern end of the Donets Basin (most of which is within Ukraine) in the south, the Pechora Basin in the far northeast of European Russia, and the Irkutsk, Kuznetsk, Kansk-Achinsk, Lena, South Yakutia and Tunguska basins extending across Siberia to the Far East.

The principal economic hard coal deposits of Russia are found in the Pechora and Kuznetsk basins. The former, which covers an area of some 90 000 km2, has been extensively developed for underground operations, despite the severe climate and the fact that 85% of the basin is under permafrost. The deposits are in relatively close proximity to markets and much of the coal is of good rank, including coking grades. The Kuznetsk Basin, an area of some 26 700 km2, lies to the east of the city of Novosibirsk and contains a wide range of coals; the ash content is variable and the sulphur is generally low. Coal is produced from both surface and underground mines.

Lying east of the Kuznetsk and astride the trans-Siberian railway, the Kansk-Achinsk Basin contains huge deposits of brown (sub-bituminous) coal with medium (in some cases, low) ash content and generally low sulphur; large strip-mines are linked to dedicated power stations and carbo-chemical plants. The vast Siberian coal-bearing areas of the Lena and Tunguska basins constitute largely unexplored resources, the commercial exploitation of which would probably be difficult to establish.

From a peak of around 425 million tonnes in 1988, Russia's total coal production declined dramatically following the disintegration of the USSR, reaching a low point of around 232 million tonnes in 1998, since when output has regained an upward trajectory, attaining almost 300 million tonnes in 2005. In 2004, around 70% of Russian consumption was accounted for by power stations and district heating plants; the iron and steel industry and the residential sector were the other main centres of coal usage.