CEO of power utility of Serbia EPS ( Elektroprivreda Srbije) Aleksandar Obradovic announced the start of coal exploration in new open pit Radljevo in 2017. Mining Basin Kolubara which is part of the EPS operates the open pits in Kolubara mine complex.
EPS Kolubara company intensified the preparatory works for the opening of new open field Radljevo and plans the testing exploration next year. First surface ground machines will start opening the coal reserves which will enable first coal production in 2017.
According to Kolubara company director Milorad Grcic the opening of Radljevo coal field is in the plans since 1978. Surface of Radljevo coal field is approximately 6000 ha with estimated reserves at 350 million tons of coal.
According to the plans the exploration of coal in Radljevo field will be conducted in three phases. In first the production would be 3-5 m/t which is the needed quantity for Serbian EPS coal fired power plants Nikola Tesla TENT. In the second phase the capacity would be increased for another 5 m/t and the third phase would reach maximum production capacity depending of the needs and in line with the plan of EPS to build new coal fired power plants.
Mining experts estimated that the maximum annual production capacity of Radljevo coal field could be 13 million tons and the coal reserves would last until 2040.
Annual production of coal in Kolubara basin company, before the floods in 2014, reached the 30 million tons per year. Kolubara coal supplies the Obrenovac based thermal power plants Nikola Tesla which are producting 52% of Serbian electricity. Considering the fact that existing coal exploration fields are at the end of their exploration cycle the first new replacement field will be Veliki Crljevi field and in 2017 Radljevo will be open. , transmits Serbia-energy.eu
