Coal in Ukraine

History

Coal mining has historically been an important industry in Ukraine. Coal first started to be produced in Ukraine in 1870, when it was part of the Russian Empire. In 1913, Donetz produced 87% of Russia's coal, and 50% of the metallurgical coal of the USSR. Like other Soviet enterprises, coal companies provided social facilities including schools and hospitals. By 2013, Ukraine had become the third largest coal producer in Europe.

Coal reserves

Ukraine's coal reserves are estimated at 60 billion tonnes, of which 23 billion are proven and probable, and 10 billion tonnes are economically extractable. In 2013, according to the Ukrainian mining trade union, coal constituted 95% of Ukraine's domestic energy resources. As of 2022, Ukraine had the sixth-largest coal reserves in the world.

It has been calculated that 90 percent of Ukraine's coal reserves are located in the Donets Coalfield in the east of the country. In March 2017, the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that banned the movement of goods to and from territories controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, which stopped coal from the Donets Black Coal Basin being used in the rest of the country.

Other Ukrainian coalfields include the Lviv-Volhynian Coalfield, between Lviv and Volodymyr, and the Dnieper Coalfield in central Ukraine, where lignite (brown coal) was mined until the 1990s.

Coal mining

n.b.: 2014, 2015, and 2016 do not include extraction in the territory occupied by the separatists.

In July 2014, several mines were closed in Eastern Ukraine because of the war in Donbas. The war in Donbass caused coal production in Ukraine to decrease by 22.4% of its 2013 value, to 64.976 million tonnes. As a result, Ukraine begun importing coal from South Africa and Russia. A lack of coal for Ukraine's coal-fired power stations and a shutdown of one of the six reactors of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lead to rolling power outages throughout the country throughout December 2014.

Consumption, import and export

Coal consumption in 2012 grew to 61.207 million tonnes, up 6.2% compared with 2011. Most is used for public utilities and for power generation. However local coal only provides 50% of the country’s electricity needs, therefore requiring Ukraine to import from Russia and Poland.

As of 2013, the Ukrainian government plans to completely replace the natural gas used in the steel industry and some other economic sectors with coal.

Coal powered 38% of Ukrainian electrical generation in 2014. The relative cost of domestic coal versus imported coal, nuclear and gas, made it unworkable. In 2016, the nation imported 15.648 million tonnes of coal and anthracite worth of $1.467 billion. In the year before the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War, 2013, Ukraine exported 500 thousand tonnes and imported 25 million tonnes. In 2016, Ukraine exported 520,585 tonnes of coal and anthracite worth of $44.762 million.

In 2019, Ukraine produced the highest amount of PM10 particulates and sulfur dioxide air pollution emissions in Europe from coal fired electricity generation. None of Ukraine's power plants have desulfurization equipment other than a small trial plant on unit 2 of Trypilska thermal power plant.

In June 2020, the Government of Ukraine prioritized the usage of coal at Ukrainian power stations to reduce the import of natural gas used at the power stations for electricity production.

Mine safety

Mine safety is the result of geology and human factors. The geology of Ukrainian coal mines is not favorable: seam thickness is small, seams are deep, and methane is common. The coal mines of Donbas are one of the most hazardous in the world due to enormous working depths (down from 300 to 1200 m) as a result of natural depletion, as well as due to high levels of methane explosion, coal dust explosion and rock burst dangers. As the Economic Review points out, "Since 1991, up to 300 [miners] have died at work every year".

Low profitability of Ukrainian mines has not attracted capital investment. As a result, the machinery and the processes used to dig coal are twenty years old. These methods are less safe on a per-miner basis and require more miners.

The Zasiadko mine stands as an example of Donbass mine safety. It was opened in 1958 and privatized in 1992, since which time it has had seven major accidents, including the 2007 Zasiadko mine disaster (101 workers killed) and the 2015 Zasiadko mine disaster (17 killed).

Corruption and illegal mining

Ukrainian mines are sometimes run by mafia-like organizations. Often, these organizations derive large incomes from the mines that belong to the government. As a result, underfinancing causes many employees to have to wait to receive their monthly salary for weeks or even months. Additionally, a lack of financing influences the condition of many coal mines. Old mines don’t receive the necessary financial aid, therefore they are not being renovated or remodeled annually. All these problems together with other challenges have resulted in "gradually declining production capacity and a loss of global market share".

In the Donets Basin there are many extremely dangerous illegal mines.

References

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