Turkish firm inks coal mining deal

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Hattat and China Coal Construction Group’s heads ink the deal. Company photo

Turkish conglomerate Hattat Group inked an agreement on July 21 with China Coal Construction Group to mine coal for its 2,600 megawatts (mW) installed power of the coal-fired thermal power plants in the Black Sea provinces of Amasra and Bartın.

The coal reserves in the site will be mined by using both on-ground and underground machines and equipment from Europe and China, according to the agreement. An annual average of 5 million tons of coal will be mined in the first years of the agreement, increasing to 10 million tons gradually.

The groups plan to make an investment of 700 million dollars in the project, which is planned to be completed in 10 years with the employment of 11,000 people.

“We have a dream, which is to establish a very big energy base in Turkey…Thus we want to make some contribution to the Turkish economic growth and employment,” Hathat Group’s chairman Mehmet Hattat said at the signing ceremony.

He added that Hattat Group had invested $310 million in the project for now, aiming to double it in the coming 10 years.

The investments for coal extraction for manufacturing, energy and mining are now eligible to benefit from incentives, according to a cabinet decision inet in June. The decision will allow for incentives to be given also to high-calorie coal as the scope of incentives had been limited by the low-calorie coal. The Energy Ministry encourages fueling thermal power plants with coal via incentives.