On July 19, 2021 a train collision on the Ulak-Elga section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) halted deliveries from Elga coking coal deposit, developed by Elgacoal company, subsidiary of Albert Avdolyan’s A-Property and Rostec state corporation. The railway section is non-public and is used solely by Elgacoal company. The accident resulted in the death of 4 people.
Under the experts, the operations may be resumed in 10 days, resulting in the delivery delay of around 0.5 mio t of coking coal. Elga is one of the largest coking coal deposits in the world with overall reserves of 2.2 billion t of coal (according to JORC classification). The coal from the deposit is delivered via the BAM to Russian coal terminals in the Far East. Key consumers of coal, extracted at Elga, are China’s Jindong Cement and Japan’s Itochu Corporation.
On July 13, 2021 A-Property offered to construct a new railway line, that would connect its Elga coking coal deposit and the Chumikan settlement, located by the Sea of Okhotsk, at its own expense. The costs of the project may reach 2.5-3.0 billion USD. A-Property also plans to build a coal terminal in the port of Vanino with annual capacity of 30 mio t by 2024 and a washing plant at Elga with a processing capacity of 32 mio t at the first stage (end of 2021) and 45 mio t at the second stage (2023).
Source: CAA Analytics
