Where is coal mined in the Russian Federation used? Coal industry

Documentation 07.05.2020

Vladimir Bogdanov is an extraordinary person: the CEO of the largest...

Despite the fact that today alternative energy sources are increasingly used, mining coal is a relevant area of industry. One of the most important areas of application of this type of fuel is the operation of power plants. Coal deposits are located in various countries of the world, and 50 of them are active.

World coal deposits

Largest quantity Coal is mined in the United States in deposits in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, Illinois and Alabama, Colorado, Wyoming and Texas. Hard and brown coal, as well as anthracite, are mined here. Russia ranks second in the extraction of these minerals.

China is in third place in coal production. The largest Chinese deposits are located in the Shanxing coal basin, in the Great Chinese Plain, Datong, Yangtze, etc. A lot of coal is also mined in Australia - in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, near the city of Newcastle. India is a major coal producer, and the deposits are located in the northeast of the country.

In the deposits of Saarland and Saxony, Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg in Germany, hard and brown coal have been mined for more than 150 years. There are three coal basins in Ukraine: Dnieper, Donetsk, Lvov-Volyn. Anthracite, gas coal and coking coal are mined here. Quite large-scale coal deposits are located in Canada and Uzbekistan, Colombia and Turkey, North Korea and in Thailand, Kazakhstan and Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa.

Coal deposits in Russia

A third of the world's coal reserves are located on the territory of the Russian Federation. The largest number of deposits is located in the eastern part of the country, in Siberia. The largest Russian coal deposits are as follows:

Kuznetskoye - a significant part of the basin lies in the Kemerovo region, where about 80% of coking coal and 56% of hard coal are mined;
Kansk-Achinsk basin – 12% of brown coal is mined;
Tunguska basin - located in part of Eastern Siberia, anthracite, brown and hard coal are mined;
The Pechora basin is rich in coking coal;
The Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin is a source of coal for Irkutsk enterprises.

Coal mining is a very promising sector of the economy today. Experts say that humanity is consuming coal too intensively, so there is a threat that the world's reserves may soon be used up, but some countries have significant reserves of this mineral. Its consumption depends on the application, and if you reduce the consumption of coal, it will last for a longer time.

The range of its use is very wide. Coal is used to generate electricity, as an industrial raw material (coke), to produce graphites, and to produce liquid fuel by hydrogenation.

Russia has vast reserves of coal deposits and coal basins.

A coal basin is an area (often over 10 thousand square kilometers) of development of coal deposits that formed in certain conditions over a certain period of time. The coal deposit has a smaller area and is a separate tectonic structure.

On the territory of Russia there are platform, folded and transitional basins.

The largest amount of coal deposits has been identified in Western and Eastern Siberia.

60% of Russian coal reserves are humic coals, including coking coal (Karaganda, South Yakutsk, Kuznetsk basins). Brown coals are also found (Ural, Eastern Siberia, Moscow region).

Coal reserves are dispersed across 25 coal basins and 650 individual deposits.

Coal mining is carried out using closed or open methods. Closed mining is carried out in mines, open - in quarries (cuts).

The life of a mine is on average 40 - 50 years. Each layer of coal takes about 10 years to remove from the mine, followed by the development of the deeper layer through reconstruction. Reconstruction of the mine horizons is prerequisite to preserve the environment and ensure worker safety.

In open-pit mines, coal is extracted in successive strips.

As of 2010, coal in Russia was mined in 91 mines and 137 open pits. The total annual capacity was 380 million tons.

After coal is extracted in mines or open pits, it goes directly to the consumer or is sent to coal enrichment enterprises.

In special factories, pieces of coal are sorted by size and then enriched.

The enrichment process is the purification of fuel from waste rock and foreign impurities.

Today, coal in Russia is mined mainly in the territory of 10 main basins. The largest deposit of hard and coking coals is the Kuznetsk basin (Kemerovo region), brown coal is mined in the Kansk-Achinsk basin (Krasnoyarsk Territory, Eastern Siberia), Anthracites - in the Gorlovka basin and in the Donbass.

The coal in these pools is of the highest quality.

Other well-known coal basins in Russia include the Pechora basin (Arctic region), the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region, and the South Yakutsk basin in the Far East.

The Taimyr, Lena and Tunguska basins are being actively developed in Eastern Siberia, as well as deposits in the Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye, Novosibirsk region.

The largest industry (in terms of the number of workers and the cost of production fixed assets) of the fuel industry is coal mining in Russia.

The coal industry mines, processes (enriches) hard coal, brown coal and anthracite.

How and how much coal is produced in the Russian Federation

This mineral is mined depending on the depth of its location: open-pit (in open-pit mines) and underground (in mines) by methods.

During the period from 2000 to 2015, underground production increased from 90.9 to 103.7 million tons, and open-pit production increased by more than 100 million tons from 167.5 to 269.7 million tons. The amount of minerals mined in the country during this period, broken down by production method, can be seen in Fig. 1.

Rice. 1: Coal production in the Russian Federation from 2000 to 2015, broken down by production method, in million.

According to information from the Fuel and Energy Complex (FEC), 385 million tons of black minerals were produced in the Russian Federation in 2016, which is 3.2% higher than the previous year. This allows us to conclude that the industry has had positive growth dynamics in recent years and is promising despite the crisis.

The types of this mineral mined in our country are divided into energy coals and coals for coking.

IN total volume over the period from 2010 to 2015, the share of energy production increased from 197.4 to 284.4 million tons. The volumes of coal production in Russia by type are shown in Fig. 2.

2: Structure of coal production in the Russian Federation by type for 2010-2015, in million tons.

How much black mineral is there in the country and where is it mined?

According to Rosstat, the Russian Federation (157 billion.

tons) ranks second after the United States (237.3 billion tons) in the world in terms of coal reserves. The Russian Federation accounts for about 18% of all world reserves. See Figure 3.

Rice. 3: World reserves by leading countries

Information from Rosstat for 2010-2015 indicates that production in the country is carried out in 25 constituent entities of the Federation in 7 Federal Districts.

There are 192 coal enterprises. These include 71 mines and 121 coal mines. Their total productive capacity is 408 million tons. More than 80% of it is mined in Siberia. Coal production in Russia by region is shown in Table 1.

In 2016, 227,400 thousand.

tons were mined in the Kemerovo region (such cities with one industry affiliation are called single-industry towns), of which about 125,000 thousand tons were exported.

Kuzbass accounts for about 60% of domestic coal production, there are about 120 mines and open pits.

At the beginning of February 2017, a new open-pit mine, Trudarmeysky Yuzhny, with a design capacity of 2,500 thousand, began operation in the Kemerovo region.

In 2017, it is planned to extract 1,500 thousand tons of minerals from the open-pit mine, and, according to forecasts, the open-pit mine will reach its design capacity in 2018. Also in 2017, three new enterprises are planned to be launched in Kuzbass.

Largest deposits

On the territory of the Russian Federation there are 22 coal basins (according to Rosstat information for 2014) and 129 individual deposits.

More than 2/3 of the reserves that have already been explored are concentrated in the Kansk-Achinsk (79.3 billion tons) and Kuznetsk (53.4 billion tons) basins. They are located in the Kemerovo region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Also among the largest basins are: Irkutsk, Pechora, Donetsk, South Yakutsk, Minusinsk, and others.

Figure 4 shows the structure of proven reserves for the main basins.

Rice. 4: Proven reserves for the main basins in Russia, billion tons.

Import Export

The Russian Federation is one of the three largest coal exporters after Australia (export volume 390 million).

tons) and Indonesia (330 million tons) in 2015. Russia's share in 2015 - 156 million tons of black minerals were exported. This figure for the country has increased by 40 million tons over five years. In addition to the Russian Federation, Australia and Indonesia, the six leading countries include the United States of America, Colombia and South Africa.

The structure of world exports is shown in Fig. 5.

Rice. 5: Structure of world exports (largest exporting countries).

The Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex reports that total exports from the country increased in 2016, while imports decreased.

Data on export-import in 2016 are presented in Table 2.

Head of the information and analytical department of the department of coal and peat industry of the Ministry of Energy of the country V.

Grishin predicts an increase in exports by 6% in 2017, its volume could reach 175 million tons, that is, an increase of 10 million tons.

Which companies are the largest producers

Large oil companies Russia is on everyone’s lips, and the largest coal producing companies in the country in 2016 are: OJSC SUEK (105.47), Kuzbassrazrezugol (44.5), SDS-Ugol (28.6), “ Vostsibugol (13.1), Southern Kuzbass (9), Yuzhkuzbassugol (11.2), Yakutugol (9.9), Raspadskaya OJSC (10.5), the amount of coal produced is indicated in parentheses in millions of tons, see

Rice. 6. The largest producers in the Russian Federation in 2016, in millions.

The companies OJSC SUEK, Kuzbassrazrezugol and SDS-Ugol have been leaders in production over recent years.

The largest producers for 2014-2015 are presented in Fig.

7. Among them, in addition to the two above-mentioned industry leaders, there are also processing enterprises: Kuzbass Fuel Company, Sibuglement Holding, Vostsibugol, Russian Coal, EVRAZ (which is one of the largest private companies in the country), Mechel-Mining, SDS-Coal.

7. The largest producers in the Russian Federation for 2014-2015, in million tons.

In November 2016, Evgeniy Kosmin’s team of section No. 1 of the V.D. mine.

Yalevsky JSC SUEK-Kuzbass set a new Russian production record for the year from one production face - 4,810 thousand tons.

Results and conclusions

The Russian coal complex is actively developing.
Imports have fallen slightly in recent years, while exports and production have increased.
In terms of exports, the Russian Federation is one of the three leading countries after Australia and Indonesia.
In the coming years, it is planned to open new mining and processing enterprises.
The top three include companies from the Siberian region, which accounts for more than 80% of the country’s total production.

Lyudmila Poberezhnykh, 2017-03-29

Questions and answers on the topic

No questions have been asked about the material yet, you have the opportunity to be the first to do so

Reference materials on the topic

Coal basins of Russia

Based on the totality of these conditions, the following stand out: inter-district coal bases- Kuznetsk and Kansk-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and South Yakutsk basins.
The most important producer of hard coal in Russia is the Kuznetsk Coal Basin.

Kuznetsk basin

The balance reserves of Kuzbass hard coal of category A+B+C1 are estimated at 57 billion tons, which is 58.8% of hard coal in Russia.

At the same time, coking coal reserves amount to 30.1 billion tons, or 73% of the country’s total reserves.

Almost the entire range of hard coal grades is mined in Kuzbass. The subsoil of Kuzbass is rich in other minerals - these are manganese, iron, phosphorite, nepheline ores, oil shale and other minerals.

Kuznetsk coals are of high quality: ash content is 8-22%, sulfur content is 0.3-0.6%, specific heat combustion – 6000 – 8500 kcal/kg.

The average depth of underground development reaches 315m.
About 40% of the mined coal is consumed in the Kemerovo region itself and 60% is exported to other regions of Russia and for export.
In the structure of coal exports from Russia, Kuzbass accounts for over 70% of its physical volume.
High quality coal occurs here, including coking coal. Almost 12% of mining is carried out by open pit mining.
Belovsky district is one of the oldest coal mining areas in Kuzbass.

The balance reserves of coal in the Belovsky district amount to more than 10 billion.

tons
The development of the Kuznetsk coal basin began in 1851 with more or less regular production of fuel at the Bachat mine for the Guryev Metallurgical Plant. The Bachat mine was located six miles northeast of the village of Bachat. Now this place is occupied by the Chertinskaya-Koksovaya and Novaya-2 mines and the Novobochatsky open-pit mine.
The firstborn of the coal industry in Belov is considered to be the Pionerka mine, in 1933. The first ton of coal was mined here.

Currently, the Belovsky district is the largest coal mining region in Kuzbass.
The Belovsky district is the geographical center of the Kemerovo region.
The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.

The Kansk-Achinsk basin is located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along Trans-Siberian Railway and accounts for 12% of coal production in Russia.

Brown coal from this basin is the cheapest in the country, as it is mined by open-pit mining. Due to its low quality, coal is poorly transportable and therefore powerful thermal power plants operate on the basis of the largest open-pit mines (Irsha-Borodinsky, Nazarovsky, Berezovsky).

The Pechora basin is the largest in the European part and accounts for 4% of the country's coal production.

It is located far from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic; mining is carried out only by mining. In the northern part of the basin (Vorkutinskoye and Vorgashorskoye deposits) coking coals are mined, and in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit) mainly energy coals are mined.

The main consumers of Pechora coal are the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, enterprises in the North-West, Center and Central Black Earth Region.

The Donetsk basin in the Rostov region is the eastern part of the coal basin located in Ukraine.

This is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mine method of extraction led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is declining every year and in 2007 the basin provided only 2.4% of all-Russian production.

The Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region provides a low cost of coal, since mining is carried out by open-pit mining and produces 3.4% of the country's coal.

Due to the great distance from large consumers, it is used at local power plants.

The South Yakut basin (3.9% of all-Russian production) is located in the Far East. It has significant reserves of energy and technological fuel, and all production is carried out by open-pit mining.

Promising coal basins include the Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky, located beyond the Yenisei north of the 60th parallel.

They occupy vast spaces in poorly developed and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

In parallel with the creation of inter-regional coal bases, there was widespread development of local coal basins, which made it possible to bring coal production closer to the areas of its consumption. At the same time, in the western regions of Russia, coal production is declining (Moscow basin), and in the eastern regions it is increasing sharply (deposits of the Novosibirsk region, Trans-Baikal Territory, Primorye.

Coal industry engages in the extraction and primary processing (enrichment) of hard and brown coal and is the largest industry in terms of the number of workers and the cost of production fixed assets.

Coal of Russia

Russia has a variety of types of coal - brown, hard, anthracite - and occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of reserves. The total geological reserves of coal are 6421 billion tons, of which 5334 billion tons are standard. Over 2/3 of the total reserves are comprised of hard coals. Technological fuel - coking coals - make up 1/10 of the total amount of hard coals.

Coal distribution across the country's territory unevenly. 95% reserves account for eastern regions, of which more than 60% go to Siberia. The bulk of general geological coal reserves are concentrated in the Tunguska and Lena basins. The Kansk-Achinsk and Kuznetsk basins are distinguished by industrial coal reserves.

Coal mining in Russia

In terms of coal production, Russia ranks fifth in the world (after China, the USA, India and Australia), 3/4 of the mined coal is used for energy and heat production, 1/4 - in metallurgy and chemical industry. A small part is exported, mainly to Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Open pit coal mining in Russia is 2/3 of the total volume. This extraction method is considered the most productive and cheapest. However, this does not take into account the severe disturbances of nature associated with it - the creation of deep quarries and extensive dumps of overburden. Mine mining is more expensive and has a high accident rate, which is largely determined by the deterioration of mining equipment (40% of it is outdated and requires urgent modernization).

Coal basins of Russia

The role of a particular coal basin in the territorial division of labor depends on the quality of coal, the size of reserves, technical and economic indicators of production, the degree of preparedness of reserves for industrial exploitation, the size of production, and the characteristics of the transport and geographical location. Based on the totality of these conditions, the following stand out: inter-district coal bases— Kuznetsk and Kansk-Achinsk basins, which together account for 70% of coal production in Russia, as well as the Pechora, Donetsk, Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and South Yakutsk basins.

Kuznetsk basin, located in the south Western Siberia in the Kemerovo region, is the main coal base of the country and provides half of all-Russian coal production. High quality coal occurs here, including coking coal. Almost 12% of mining is carried out by open pit mining. The main centers are Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, Prokopyevsk, Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.

Kansk-Achinsk basin located in the south of Eastern Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk Territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway and accounts for 12% of coal production in Russia. Brown coal from this basin is the cheapest in the country, as it is mined by open-pit mining. Due to its low quality, coal is poorly transportable and therefore powerful thermal power plants operate on the basis of the largest open-pit mines (Irsha-Borodinsky, Nazarovsky, Berezovsky).

Pechora basin is the largest in the European part and accounts for 4% of the country's coal production. It is located far from the most important industrial centers and is located in the Arctic; mining is carried out only by mining. In the northern part of the basin (Vorkutinskoye, Vorgashorskoye deposits) coking coals are mined, in the southern part (Intinskoye deposit) - mainly energy coals. The main consumers of Pechora coal are the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, enterprises in the North-West, Center and Central Black Earth Region.

Donetsk basin in the Rostov region is the eastern part of the coal basin located in Ukraine. This is one of the oldest coal mining areas. The mine method of extraction led to the high cost of coal. Coal production is declining every year and in 2007 the basin provided only 2.4% of all-Russian production.

Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin in the Irkutsk region ensures low cost of coal, since mining is carried out by open-pit mining and produces 3.4% of coal in the country. Due to the great distance from large consumers, it is used at local power plants.

South Yakutsk basin(3.9% of all-Russian production) is located in the Far East. It has significant reserves of energy and technological fuel, and all production is carried out by open-pit mining.

Promising coal basins include the Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky, located beyond the Yenisei north of the 60th parallel. They occupy vast spaces in poorly developed and sparsely populated areas of Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

The main tasks facing the coal industry include the extraction and primary processing (enrichment) of hard and brown coal. Coal mining is the largest of all industries included in fuel industry by the number of personnel and the cost of fixed assets. Such a subject of the Russian Federation as the Kemerovo region owes its economic potential largely to the coal industry. Coal basins of Russia

On the territory of Russia there are deposits of various types of coal - brown, hard and anthracite. The Russian Federation occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of the amount of fossil fuel in the ground. The total amount of coal is 6421 billion tons, 5334 billion tons of which are standard.

The amount of coal in total reserves is more than 60% of all reserves. Technological fuel - coking coal - occupies 10% of the total reserves, 3.6% of the gross product falls on the share of coal mining products in the fuel and energy complex, and in the total volume Russia's GDP this industry accounts for about one percent.

Amount of coal consumed domestic market Russia increased by 2.3% and amounted to 178 million tons. Of this, 38 million tons were consumed for coking, and 140 million tons were consumed by power engineers.

If you look at a map of Russia, more than 90% of deposits are located in the east of the country, mainly in Siberia. If we compare production volumes, the most significant fields for the country can be called the Kuznetskoye, Kansko-Achinskoye, Tunguskoye, Pechora and Irkutsko-Cheremkhovskoye fields.

Development of the coal industry in Russia

In the world, in terms of volumes of coal produced, Russia ranks fifth (ahead of China, the United States of America, Australia and India), 75% of the extracted fuel is used by power engineers in the production of thermal and electrical energy, 25% is used for the needs of the metallurgical and chemical industries.

A small percentage of total production is exported. The main export markets are Japan and the Republic of Korea.

In Russia, the main method of extraction is open-pit mining - 75% of the total volume. The use of the open method is due to shallow depth occurrence. To use this method of extraction, you need to remove the top layers of soil. For opening, bulldozers, scrapers, bucket wheel excavators, and draglines are used.

Then the rock is crushed. For crushing, water cannons and crushers are used, and sometimes drilling and blasting methods of coal breaking are used. Mining in this way occupies a fairly large area of territory.

Open-pit coal mining has the following positive sides:

Coal mining

extraction of a unit of production occurs over a short period of time;
low cost;
relative safety;

Flaws:

Coal mined by open-pit mining contains a large percentage of impurities.

Mine mining is more expensive. The application is due to the occurrence of useful rock layers at great depths. The development of mines requires large capital expenditures, both in financially, and in time. When mining coal in mines, a large share of manual labor. The depth of some mines reaches one kilometer.

Advantages:

high quality extracted raw materials;
less impact on environment;

Flaws:

the most unsafe method of mining;
serious financial investments are required.

The largest deposits in Russia

Kuzbass

Mineral resources. Lignite basins

The Kuznetsk coal basin, abbreviated as Kuzbass, is the largest deposit in terms of coal reserves in the Russian Federation, and the largest in the world. It is located in Western Siberia.

The main part of the basin is located in the Kemerovo region. Kuzbass accounts for the production of 56% of hard coal and about 80% of coking coal mined in the Russian Federation, in total amount two hundred million tons per year.

In the Kuznetsk basin, coals vary in quality. Higher quality coal lies deeper, and the closer to the surface the ash content and moisture content of the coal increases. Large distances from the main fuel consumers - the central part of the country, Kamchatka and Sakhalin - are the main disadvantage. Mining is carried out using the open-pit method.

Kansk-Achinsk basin

This pool is located in central Siberia. The main type of mined coal is brown coal, widely used in the energy sector. It is mined by open-pit mining.

The amount of coal reserves is 638 billion tons, the fuel is used by local power plants to generate electricity and thermal energy. A significant part of the extracted minerals is used at the Irkutsk Thermal Power Plant energy system. The largest consumers of Kansk-Achinsk coal are thermal power plants located in the following cities:

Krasnoyarsk;
Abakan;
Sunny;
Zheleznogorsk.

Of no small importance for the basin is the presence of the Trans-Siberian railway, along which coal is transported both in the western direction of the country (for the needs of the Ryazan State District Power Plant) and to the Far East.

Tunguska basin

The largest coal deposits

The Tunguska basin, the leading one in Russia, is one of the largest coal basins in the world. Its area is approximately one million square kilometers. The amount of coal in the ground is approximately two billion tons, 95% of which is stone. This amount of coal can supply all the world's needs for five hundred years.

Due to the lack of access roads and remoteness from industrial centers, it is not operated at full capacity. The main consumer of coal is the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Pechora coal basin

Coal mining in the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo basin

Located on the western slope of the Pai-Khoi ridge. Administratively located in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Komi Republic.

In the depths of the basin there are mainly high-quality coking coals. Extraction is carried out using the mine method.

Annual production is 12.6 million tons of coal, which is equal to 4% of the total amount of coal mined in Russia. Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant is the largest consumer.

Irkutsk–Cheremkhovo basin

The Irkutsk coal basin covers an area of 42.7 thousand km². The amount of coal in the depths of the basin is 9 billion tons, of which 94% is hard coal, brown coal accounts for the remaining 6%.

The thickness of the layers is from one to ten meters. Large distances from large consumers do not allow the use of mined coal, except at local power plants. An open-pit method is used to extract fuel.

Impact on the environment

The nature of the problems of environmental impact in the coal mining sector is mainly associated with the conduct of mining operations. Especially when open mining coal During blasting operations, tons of dust rise into the sky and are carried by the wind for many kilometers. More than fifty percent of coal mines are classified as explosive, and the risk of spontaneous combustion of coal dust is also high.

When blasting operations are carried out, tons of dust rise into the sky and are carried by the wind for many kilometers

When working underground, there is a high probability of land subsidence, which can be prevented. When mining minerals, voids created underground must be filled with worthless rock or other materials.

Many countries around the world are already successfully using this technology. First of all, in those countries where standards and programs have been adopted for the reclamation of territories where mining operations were carried out.

Each business entity when extracting stone fuel must comply with the safety requirements adopted in the mining industry. Neglecting these rules can lead to very dangerous consequences:

During mining, landscape changes are possible;
the development of soil erosion associated with subsidence of the earth's surface, the soil cover is disturbed;
air and water quality deteriorates;
As a result of underground coal mining, methane emissions occur;
underground fires;
spontaneous combustion in dumps;
crumbling of slopes;

To minimize environmental consequences, each subject economic activity Those involved in coal mining and processing must contribute to solving this problem.

Video: Coal. Modern coal mining!

Today, coal is the most widely used. With its help, electrical energy, rare and trace elements, and graphite are obtained. Coal is an important raw material in the chemical and metallurgical industries. This is why the request “buy coal” comes up very often.

Russia boasts huge coal reserves, the basins and deposits of which are scattered throughout the country. They differ in geological structure, coal quality, coal saturation and age of sediments. Depending on the structural characteristics, Russian basins are classified into folded, transitional and platform.\

Most of the deposits contain humus coals, among which the main place belongs to coking varieties. Main basins: Donetsk, Pechora, South Yakutsk and Kuznetsk. Brown coal deposits are found in the regions of Eastern Siberia and the Urals, as well as in the Moscow basin.

Coal deposits are uneven in the quality of the fossil, the volume of its reserves and the occupied area. In addition, they, like development companies, are located in different regions of the country. Today coal is mined in ten coal basins. The largest deposits are considered to be the Kuznetsk, Kansko-Achinsk, Gorlovka basins and Eastern Donbass.

The Kuznetsk basin is the main coal base of the country and provides half of the total volume of mined raw materials. Almost twelve percent of mining is done by open pit mining. The Kansk-Achinsk basin supplies brown coal, which is considered the cheapest in the country. Due to its low quality, it is poorly transportable, so it mainly ensures the operation of powerful thermal power plants operating on the basis of the largest open-pit mines. The Pechora basin accounts for four percent of the country's coal production. It is located far from industrial centers, mining is carried out only in mines.

Coal mining

Coal is mined in two main ways - closed and open. In the first case, these are mines or cuts. A mine is a complex mining enterprise for the extraction of coal using the underground method. On average, she works for about forty years. Coal is mined in layers, each layer taking approximately ten years to remove. After this, the horizon is reconstructed and a deeper layer is developed. The open-pit mine involves excavating coal in benches and successive strips. Coal mined in mines and open pits is sent directly to the consumer or to processing plants, where it is first sorted and then enriched.

Promising coal basins include Lensky, Tungussky and Taimyrsky. They occupy significant areas in sparsely populated areas of Siberia and the Far East. Today, coal production in the western regions is gradually declining, while in the eastern regions it is increasing. One of the oldest basins is Donbass. The coal mined here is of high quality, which distinguishes it from competitors' products.