Amaam North Project
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Amaam North is a permitted coal mine near to Alkatvaam, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (District), Far East, Russia.
Amaam North is part of the Tigers Realm Coal Amaam coal project, along with the proposed Amaam coal mine. The project lies on the Zvonkoye coal deposit. Amaam North is a predominantly coking coal mine exporting via Tigers Realm's Beringovsky coal terminal,[1] to customers in Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam.[2]
Contents
Location
The coal mine is located in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (District), Far East, Russia, some 20km from the village of Alkatvaam. The map below shows the approximate location.
Coal Mine Background
Tigers Realm 100% owns the Amaam North coal mine having bought out its partner B.S. Chukchi Investments in 2017.[3]
There are three licenses on Amaam North, “Project F,” (permitted to mine until December 2034) ““Zvonkoye” (permitted to mine until sept 2038) and “Levobrezhny” (which has an exploration license lapsing in 2025).[4]
Project Details
- Sponsor:
- Parent Company: Tigers Realm Coal Limited[3]
- Location: 20km south west of Alkatvaam, in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia.
- GPS Coordinates: 63.041106, 178.705229 (approximate)
- Status: Operating
- Production Capacity: to reach 2 million metric tons (Mt)/year[5]
- Total Resource: 22 million tonnes[6]
- Mineable Reserves: Coking coal = 16.9 million tonnes of which 7.8 are probable. Thermal coal = 3.7 million tonnes.[7]
- Coal type: Coking and thermal coal
- Mine Size: The Amaam coal project would cover 709 km2[1]
- Mine Type: Open-pit and underground[7]
- Start Year: 2017[8]
- Source of Financing: Sberbank[9]
Environment
Indigenous Chukchi pepole live in the area of the Amaam coal project and have been in conflict over the natural resources with coal companies. In 2007 Northern Pacific Coal Mining (a subsidiary of Tigers Realm Coal) (translated from the Russian Severo-Tikhookeanskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya / STUK) was granted a permit Beringovyi hard coal deposit. Initially, the permit was given under the condition, that the company stays out of the territories of the indigenous obshchina (kinship-based community and cooperative), however the company chose to ignore this condition. The exploration works led to serious environmental damage by drilling, fuel spills, movement of heavy machinery in the summer period across the Amaam river. (In the summer months, the environment is particularly vulnerable due to the thawed ground).
In 2011, STUK hired the Chukokta Trading Company (ChTK) as a subcontractor. With the arrival of this company, the violations aggravated. In summer of 2011, right in the middle of the the salmon spawning season , ChTK hauled cargo from the Ushakov bay across the pristine tundra, the floodplains of the Amaam lagoon and the Amaam river all the way to the base using heavy transport equipment, inflicting irreparable damage to the river.
The indigenous people filed complaints and the coal company filed a counter suit and continued to operate. In February 2013 the arbitration court of Chukotka ruled in favour of the STUK and ordered that the obschchina had to pay the damages amounting to approximately 15,000 US Dollars. A few months later, in November 2013, the head of the Anadyr municipal district of Chukotka adopted a decree revoking the rights of the community to the given territory.
In 2015 the earlier ruling was overturned, meaning that the Chukchi did not have to pay the coal company but no compensation was offered to the Chukchi for damage to their land.[10]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page 8, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page B and page 1, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Creamer Media Reporter, "Tigers Realm now owns 100% of Amaam project", Mining Weekly website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page 12, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page B, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "Bering Coal Basin: Amaam and Amaam North, Chukotka, Far East Russia", Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page 6, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page 22, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ Tigers Realm Coal, "2018 Annual Report", page 1, Tigers Realm Coal website, 17 April 2019.
- ↑ International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, "Russia: Chukchi community defends territorial rights against coal mining company", IWGIA website, 12 June 2015.
