Metal Info reported that after a temporary shutdown of mining operations TOO Bogatyr Komir a joint venture of RUSAL and the Kazakhstan state owned holding Samruk Energo fully resumed extraction and delivery of coal to power plants in Kazakhstan and Russia on June 30th 2009.

In June, Bogatyr miners completed scheduled maintenance of mining and energy equipment including repair of 2 bucketwheel reclaimers and modernization of another reclaimer together with TAKRAF specialists from Germany. Other suspension period activities include repair of the railway system at the Bogatyr mine, reconstruction of railway terminals and overhaul of the overhead wiring.

Repair and maintenance activities enabled Bogatyr Komir to resume the required rate of operations within the first day of work and ship 95,000 tonnes of coal to its customers. Overall, the plant will ship 2,840,000 tonnes of fuel in July including 1,616,000 tonnes to Kazakhstan and 1,224,000 tonnes to power plants in Russia.

Suspension of Bogatyr in June did not affect operations of Kazakh power plants which had been supplied with fuel reserves in previous months. Starting in July, the power plants will commence preparatory activities for the winter and start generating new coal reserves.

Having sold 14.4 million tonnes of coal in H1 2009, TOO Bogatyr Komir sets a higher target for the H2 of the year hoping to produce and sell over 20 million tonnes of coal.

(Sourced from Metal Info)