Amaam coal mine

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Amaam is a permitted coal mine 50 km south of the village of Alkatvaam, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (District), Far East, Russia.

Amaam is part of the Tigers Realm Coal Amaam coal project, along with the operational Amaam North Project. The project lies on the Zvonkoye coal deposit. Amaam is planned to become a coking coal mine exporting via Tigers Realm coal's Beringovsky coal terminal.

Location

The coal mine is located in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (District), Far East, Russia, some 50km from the village of Alkatvaam. The map below shows the approximate location.

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Coal Mine Background

A Preliminary Feasibility Study was released in April 2013 and subsequently Tigers Realm Coal has completed further drilling and exploration activities, updated the resource estimate and obtained two long-term (20 year) Extraction and Exploration Licences over parts of the deposit, whilst also extending the Exploration Licence. Amaam requires significant investment in infrastructure in order to be developed. Three are three licenses for Amaam, “Zapadny”, mining until March 2033, “Nadezhny”, mining until July 2037, and "General", exploration until December 2019.

Project Details

• Sponsor:
• Parent Company: Tigers Realm Coal Limited [80%]
• Location: Approximately 50km south of the village of Alkatvaam, in the Bering Basin in the Chukotka province, Russia.
• GPS Coordinates: 62.684607, 179.072588 (approximate)
• Status: Development
• Production Capacity:6.5 Mt/year over an estimated 20 years
• Total Resource: 425 Mt at Amaam extractable by opencast.
• Mineable Reserves:25-40 million tonnes
• Coal type: Coking coal
• Mine Size: 231km2
• Mine Type: Open-pit with potential for underground mining
• Start Year: Uncertain
• Source of Financing:

Environment

Indigenous Chukchi 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, Severo-Tikhookeanskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya / STUK in Russian which is a subsidiary of Tigers Realm Coal was granted a permit for the 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 and 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 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, Chukokta Trading Company 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. 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.

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