OREANDA-NEWS. February 14, 2008. Belon Group and the Kemerovo Region Administration signed a new protocol to the Agreement on Social and Economic Partnership for 2008. In the course of the document execution, the parties also summed up the collaboration results obtained in 2007.

According to the results of the preceding year, Belon Group invested 6.6 bln rubles in the production development of Kuzbass, thus considerably exceeding its previous commitments. The Company completed its large-scale investment project aimed at the construction of the Listvyazhnaya coal preparation plant, which is now the largest enterprise in the Russian steam coal preparation industry. The investments in the coal preparation plant amounted to 3 bln rubles. In the period from August to December 2007, the plant prepared 625,000 tons of raw coal and produced 505,000 tons of steam coal concentrate in the test mode.

In 2008, Belon plans to invest 4.5 bln rubles in the production industry of Kuzbass. These funds will be spent on the implementation of the Company’s major projects—commissioning of new enterprises and modernization of the existing facilities. Belon also allocates 520 mln rubles to the improvement of occupational safety at its mines, which exceeds the previous year investments by 80 mln rubles.

This year, the Company plans to put into operation two production facilities. These include the Kostromovskaya mine with the design capacity of 2 mln tons of metallurgical coal per year, and the Novobachatsky open-pit mine, two sections of which have the capacity of about 1 mln tons. By commissioning of the new enterprises and rapid buildup of production volumes at the existing facilities, Belon Group plans to make a 1.5-fold increase in the volume of coal production, from 4.7 mln tons to 7 mln tons, in the current year. The volume of metallurgical coal preparation is expected to amount to over 6 mln tons, and that of steam coal—to 5 mln rubles.

Today, the Company’s Kuzbass enterprises employ over 7,000 workers. Belon makes every effort to create favourable working conditions for its employees, and to ensure that they get good salaries. In 2008, the salary will continue to increase, and the average salary will be 23% higher that that in the previous year. The total amount of investment to be made in the current year by Belon in the implementation of various social programs which are aimed at providing welfare allowances and social safety net for the Company’s employees and unemployed pensioners is 93 mln rubles.

In addition, Belon plans to invest 35.43 mln rubles in the implementation of the major national projects in the sphere of health care, education and housing construction, and another 39.25 mln rubles in the development of social projects realized by the Region Administration. Belon also undertook to provide financing for the construction of 50 flats in the apartment building in the town of Belovo. By the decision of Governor of the Kemerovo region A. G. Tuleyev and President of Belon Group A. P. Dobrov, half of these flats will be donated to foster children of the orphanages of the Belovo region, which are patronized by the Company.