OREANDA-NEWS. August 13, 2008. According to the performance results for the first six months of 2008, Belon Group achieved a significant increase in coal preparation and sales compared to the similar period of the last year.

In the reported period, the volume of metallurgical coal and sludge preparation at the Belovskaya central coal preparation plant increased by 20% to reach 2,671,000 tons, with the share of the Group’s own coals amounting to 1,369,000 tons, which exceeds the respective figures of January–June 2007 by 38%. The plant produced 1,949,000 tons of metallurgical coal concentrate, which is 20% more than the respective index of the previous year. The preparation goal for 2008 is to prepare 6 mln tons of raw coal, with the share of the Group’s own coals being 3,600,000 tons, whereas the coal concentrate production will amount to 4.3 mln tons.

Starting from the beginning of 2008, all steam coal produced at the Company’s facilities is prepared at the Listvyazhnaya coal preparation plant, the new facility launched by Belon Group. In the first half of the year, after finishing the technological equipment testing, the plant reached the estimated daily bank coal preparation capacity of 18,000 tons. In the first six month of 2008, the Listvyazhnaya coal preparation plant demonstrated the following performance: 1,261,000 tons of steam coal were prepared, 1,062,000 tons of low-ash high calorific steam coal concentrate were produced. Belon’s plans for 2008 is to prepare 5 mln tons of bank steam coal and to get 4 mln tons of concentrate.

Therefore, in the first half of 2008, the total amount of Belon Group’s coal deliveries to the consumers exceeded 3 mln tons, which is 21% more than the respective index of the previous year. The total revenues from selling coal products amounted to RUB 7.9 billion, thus showing a 2.5-fold increase compared to the corresponding figure of the previous year.

Such increase in coal preparation was backed up by ongoing proactive investments of Belon Group in the development of the in-house production facilities. The total amount to be invested in 2008 in achieving the set goals is RUB 4.55 billion. Within the first six months of 2008, the amount of RUB 2.456 billion have already been tied up.