OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2007. According to the results of the first 11 months of 2007, the enterprises of Belon Group produced 4,273,000 tons of steam and metallurgical coal. The expected production volume as of the end of the current year will amount to 4,778,000 tons of coal, thus exceeding the respective index of 2006 by 40%.

Such growth was achieved due to the increase in production rates at the enterprises of Belon Group.

The total production of steam coal in the first 11 months of the current year amounted to 2,458,000 tons, with the expected volume to be produced by the end of 2007 being 2,774,000 tons. This figure shall exceed the respective index of 2006 by 64%. The significant increase in the volume of production at the Listvyazhnaya mine is a result of modernization and integration of a new high-capacity coal production complex.

In January–November 2007, production of metallurgical coal at the Company’s enterprises totaled 1,815,000 tons. In total, by the end of 2007, the mines of Belon Group are expected to produce over 2 mln tons of metallurgical coal, thus to exceed the respective figure of the preceding year by 16%.

In the course of modernization of the Company's production facilities, Belon has recently completed the first stage of the Novaya-2 mine modernization, and put into operation a DBT ploughing complex. The state-of-the-art equipment allows performing thin bed coal excavation, and producing high quality coal. By the end of the year, with the help of the new complex the Group plans to produce about 30,000 tons of coal, and in March 2008 the Company is expected to reach a stable production rate of 80,000 tons per month.

The overall metallurgical coal preparation volume for the first 11 months amounted to 4,140,000 tons, with the expected volume to be reached by the end of 2007 being 4,493,000 tons.

In 2007, the Company developed a new production sector—industrial-scale preparation of steam coal. In August, Belon completed the implementation of one of its key investment projects and finished the construction of the Listvyazhnaya coal preparation plant to produce high-quality steam coal concentrate. Currently, start and adjustment of the equipment is being provided, with the production of pilot lots of the products. In the period from September to December 2007, the coal preparation plant is expected to produce about 490,000 tons of cleaned steam coal.

In 2008, it is planned to complete another major investment project and to launch the Kostromovskaya mine, which will produce metallurgical coal of "Zh" grade. In addition, in the coming year the first train of the Novobachatsky open-pit mine will be put into operation. Launching of these enterprises will allow a significant increase in the share of Belon Group's own metallurgical coal in the total volume of coal cleaned at the Company’s preparation facilities.