OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2010. A methane flare with further combustion occurred Thursday night at Krasnoarmiyska-Zakhidna #1 coal mine <SHCHZ UK U/R>. According to the MOE press service, 21 miners worked on the drop-out sump at the moment of the blast. All of them were taken up on the surface. The mine operations have been suspended temporary.

Millennium Capital: undoubtedly, this is bad news. Most of the Ukrainian coal producers are in a hazardous state technically, not to mention their dire financial situation. In spite of the government capital investments in the coal industry growing year-to-year, most of the coal producers are loss making. Please note that the government plans to liquidate the regulator, Coal of Ukraine, and shut down the loss-making enterprises, but these objectives may be quite hard to reach.