OREANDA-NEWS. January 28, 2009. Pavlogradugol, which is a part of DTEK, has summed up the results of its operations in 2008. The coal mining company continues to keep the leading position in the coal sector of Ukraine, having increased its share in the Ukrainian coal production to 18.2%.

According to the 2008 results, the coal output by Pavlogradugol totalled 14.162m tons, which is a year-over-year growth of 1.801m tons. Furthermore, the company increased its share in the Ukrainian coal production by 1.8% from 16.4% to 18.2%.

Pavlogradugol fulfilled its coal output plan of 13.120m tons on December 4 with nine out of its ten mines having met their annual coal production targets ahead of schedule. Geroev Kosmosa mine increased its extraction of ROM coal by over 30% y-o-y and, on 29 November 2008, it hit the history record for the Western Donbass to have produced 2m tons.

In 2008, the company drove 106,847 RM of stripping and developing mine workings, which is by 6,652 RM more than in 2007. Pavlogradugol completed its annual plan of stripping and developing mine workings (102km 588m) ahead of target on 15 December 2008.

The average load on a breakage face at Pavlogradugol went up by 132 tons y-o-y to make 1052 tons, which is 108.1% of the planned indicator. In 2008, the average monthly productivity of an extraction miner advanced from 51.8 ton/month to 62.7 ton/month, compared with 2007.

Last year, DTEK’s investment into the development of Pavlogradugol was about UAH1 billion, which is by over 80% above the 2007 investment (UAH551.355m). These funds were allocated for the purchase of new mining equipment: 8 shearers and 11 roadheaders, 18 scraper conveyors and stage loaders and 23 belt conveyors: for the improvement of the working environment of the company’s employees; for the compliance with safety requirements and the accomplishment of social programmes.

Upon the results of 2008, the average wage at the company was 42 % above the similar indicator of 2007.

‘Last year, Pavlogradugol has improved all its key production indicators compared to 2007 and laid a solid foundation for the company to overcome the economic crisis with least losses. In 2009, we will take each and every measure to keep the production and HR potential of Pavlogradugol. We will need it to continue the implementation of the DTEK Strategy, envisaging a significant increase in the coal output by our company, after the stabilization of the economic situation in the county and in the world’, concluded Nikolay Tishchenko, the General Director of Pavlogradugol.